SUMNEK 
 
 The Huel 
 Between 
 France ans Germany 
 
 I9il 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028336323 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DC 291.S95 1911 
 
 3 1924 028 336 323 
 
THE DUEL BETWEEN 
 FRANCE AND GERMANY 
 
 REPRINTED FROM "ADDRESSES ON WAR" 
 
 BY 
 CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION 
 
 GIKN AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 
 1911 
 
This address is one of tlie three by Charles 
 
 Sumner included in the volume, "Addresses 
 
 on War " (mailing price, 60 cents), published 
 
 by the World Peace Foundation. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1871, BY CHARLES SUMNER, AND 1882, BY PKANCIS V. BALCH, KXBCUTOR 
 
THE 
 
 DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY, 
 
 WITH ITS LESSON TO CIVILIZATION. 
 
 Lbcttjbe in the Music Hall, Boston, Octobbe 26, 1870. 
 
 " When kings make war, 
 No law betwixt two sovereigns can decide. 
 But that of arms, where Fortune is the judge, 
 Soldiers the lawyers, and the Bar the field." 
 
 Deyden, Lme Triumphant, Act 1. So. 1. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 ME. PEESIDENT, — I am to speak of the Duel 
 between France and Germany, with its Lesson to 
 Civilization. In calling the terrible war now waging 
 a Duel, I might content myself with classical author- 
 ity, Dudluni being a well-known Latin word for War. 
 The historian Livy makes a Eoman declare that affairs 
 are to be settled " by a pure and pious duel " ; ^ the 
 dramatist Plautus has a character in one of his plays 
 who obtains great riches " by the duelling art, " ^ mean- 
 ing the art of war; and Horace, the exquisite master 
 of language, hails the age of Augustus with the Temple 
 of Janus closed and " free from duels," ^ meaning at 
 peace, — for then only was that famous temple shut. 
 
 WAK UNDER THE LAW OF NATIONS A DUEL. 
 
 But no classical authority is needed for this desig- 
 nation. War, as conducted under International Law, 
 between two organized nations, is in all respects a 
 duel, according to the just signification of this word, — 
 differing from that between two individuals only in the 
 number of combatants. The variance is of proportion 
 merely, each nation being an individual who appeals to 
 the sword as Arbiter; and in each case the combat is 
 
 1 "Puropioqne duello." — Eistorice, Lib. I. cap. 32. 
 
 2 "Arte diiellica." — Epidicus, Act. III. Sc. iv. 14. 
 8 *' Vacuum duellis." — Carmina, Lib. IV. xv. 8. 
 
 243 
 
244 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEKMANT. 
 
 subject to rules constituting a code by which the two 
 parties are bound. For long years before civilization 
 prevailed, the code governing the duel between individ- 
 uals was as fixed and minute as that which governs the 
 larger duel between nations, and the duel itself was 
 simply a mode of deciding questions between individu- 
 als. In presenting this comparison I expose myself to 
 criticism only from those who have not considered this 
 interesting subject in the light of history and of reason. 
 The parallel is complete. Modern war is the duel of 
 the Dark Ages, magnified, amplified, extended so as to 
 embrace nations ; nor is it any less a duel because the 
 combat is quickened and sustained by the energies of 
 self-defence, or because, when a champion falls and lies 
 on the ground, he is brutally treated. An authentic 
 instance illustrates such a duel ; and I bring before you 
 the very pink of chivalry, the Chevalier Bayard, " the 
 knight without fear and without reproach," who, after 
 combat in a chosen field, succeeded by a feint in driving 
 his weapon four fingers deep into the throat of his ad- 
 versary, and then, rolling with him, gasping and strug- 
 gling, on the ground, thrust his dagger into the nostrils 
 of the fallen victim, exclaiming, " Surrender, or you are 
 a dead man!" — a speech which seemed superfluous; 
 for the second cried out, " He is dead already ; you have 
 conquered." Then did Bayard, brightest among the 
 Sons of War, drag his dead enemy from the field, cry- 
 ing, " Have I done enough ? " ^ Now, because the brave 
 knight saw fit to do these things, the combat was not 
 changed in original character. It was a duel at the 
 
 1 La tresjoyeuse, plaisante et recreative Hystoire, compos^e par le Loyal 
 Serviteur, des Faiz, Gestes, Triumphes et Prouesses du Bon Chevalier sans 
 Paour et sans Reprouclie, le Gentil Seigneur de Bayart : Petitot, Collection 
 des M^moires relatifs a I'Histoire de France, Tom. XV. pp. 241, 242. 
 
"WAE UNDEE THE LAW OF NATIONS A DUEL. 245 
 
 beginning and at the end. Indeed, the brutality with 
 which it closed was the natural incident of a duel. A 
 combat once begun opens the way to violence, and the 
 conqueror too often surrenders to the Evil Spirit, as 
 Bayard in his unworthy barbarism. 
 
 In likening war between nations to the duel, I fol- 
 low not only reason, but authority also. No better 
 lawyer can be named in the long history of the English 
 bar than John Selden, whose learning was equalled only 
 by his large intelligence. In those conversations which 
 under the name of "Table-Talk" continue still to in- 
 struct, the wise counsellor, after saying that the Church 
 allowed the duel anciently, and that in the public litur- 
 gies there were prayers appointed for duellists to say, 
 keenly inquires, "But whether is this lawful?" And 
 then he answers, " If you grant any war lawful, I make 
 no doubt but to convince it." ^ Selden regarded the 
 simple duel and the larger war as governed by the same 
 rule. Of course the exercise of force in the suppres- 
 sion of rebellion, or in the maintenance of laws, stands 
 on a different principle, being in its nature a constab- 
 ulary proceeding, which cannot be confounded with the 
 duel But my object is not to question the lawfulness 
 of war ; I would simply present an image, enabling you 
 to see the existing war in its true character. 
 
 The duel in its simplest form is between two individ- 
 uals. In early ages it was known sometimes as the 
 Judicial Combat, and sometimes as Trial by Battle. 
 Not only points of honor, but titles to land, grave ques- 
 tions of law, and even the subtilties of theology, were 
 referred to this arbitrament, ^ — just as now kindred 
 
 1 Table-Talk, ed. Singer, (London, 1856,) p. i7, — Duel. 
 
 2 Robertson, History of the Reign of Cliarles V. ; Yiew of the Progress 
 of Society in Europe, Section L Note XXIL 
 
246- THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEEMANY. 
 
 issues between nations are referred to Trial by Battle ; 
 and the early rales governing the duel are reproduced 
 in the Laws of War established by nations to govern 
 the great Trial by Battle. Ascending from the indi- 
 vidual to corporations, guilds, villages, towns, counties, 
 provinces, we find that for a long period each of these 
 bodies exercised what was called " the Eight of War." 
 The history of France and Germany shows how reluct- 
 antly this mode of trial yielded to the forms of reason 
 and order. France, earlier than Germany, ordained 
 "Trial by Proofs," and eliminated the duel from judi- 
 cial proceedings, this important step being followed by 
 the gradual amalgamation of discordant provinces in 
 the powerful unity of the Nation, — so that Brittany 
 and Normandy, Franche-Comte and Burgundy, Pro- 
 vence and Dauphiny, Gascouy and Languedoc, with the 
 rest, became the United States of France, or, if you 
 please, France. In Germany the change was slower; 
 and here the duel exhibits its most curious instances. 
 Not only feudal chiefs, but associations of tradesmen 
 and of domestics sent defiance to each other, and some- 
 times to whole cities, on pretences trivial as those 
 which have been the occasion of defiance from nation 
 to nation. There still remain to us Declarations of War 
 by a Lord of Frauenstein against the free city of Frank- 
 fort, because a young lady of the city refused to dance 
 with his uncle, — by the baker and domestics of the 
 Margrave of Baden against Esslingen, Eeutlingen, and 
 other imperial cities, — by the baker of the Count Pal- 
 atine Louis against the cities of Augsburg, Ulm, and 
 Eottweil, — by the shoe-blacks of the University of 
 Leipsic against the provost and other members, — and 
 by the cook of Eppstein, with his scullions, dairy-maids. 
 
WAR UNDEE THE LAW OF NATIONS A DUEL. 247 
 
 and dish-washers, against Otho, Count of Solms.^ This 
 prevalence of the duel aroused the Emperor Maximil- 
 ian, who at the Diet of Worms put forth an ordinance 
 abolishing the right or liberty of Private War, and in- 
 stituting a Supreme Tribunal for the determination of 
 controversies without appeal to the duel, and the whole 
 long list of duellists, whether corporate or individual, 
 including nobles, bakers, shoe-blacks, and cooks, was 
 brought under its pacific rule. Unhappily the benefi- 
 cent reform stopped half-way, and here Germany was 
 less fortunate than France. The great provjices were 
 left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence, with 
 the "right" to fight each other. The duel continued 
 their established arbiter, until at last, in 1815, by the 
 Act of Union constituting the Confederation or United 
 States of Germany, each sovereignty gave up the right 
 of war with its confederates, setting an example to the 
 larger nations. The terms of this important stipulation, 
 marking a stage in German unity, were as follows : — 
 
 "The memheTS of the Confederation further bind them- 
 selves under no pretext to make war upon one another, or to 
 pursue their differences by force of arms, but to submit them 
 to the Diet." ^ 
 
 Better words could not be found for the United 
 States of Europe, in the establishment of that Great 
 Era when the Duel shall cease to be the recognized 
 Arbiter of Nations. 
 
 With this exposition, which I hope is not too long, 
 it is easy to see how completely a war between two 
 
 1 Coxe, History of the House of Austria, (London, 1820,) Ch. XIX., Vol. 
 L p. 378. 
 
 2 Acte pour la Constitution fMdrative de rAUemagne du 8 Juin 1815, 
 Art. 11 : Archives Diplomatiques, (Stuttgart et Tubingue, 1821-36,) Vol. 
 IV. p. 15. 
 
248 THE DUEL BETWEEN FKANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 nations is a duel, — and, yet further, how essential it is 
 to that assured peace which civilization requires, that 
 the duel, which is no longer tolerated as arbiter be- 
 tween individuals, between towns, between counties, 
 between provinces, should cease to be tolerated as such 
 between nations. Take our own country, for instance. 
 In a controversy between towns, the local law provides 
 a judicial tribunal; so also in a controversy between 
 counties. Ascending still higher, suppose a controversy 
 between two States of our Union; the National Consti- 
 tution establishes a judicial tribunal, being the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. But at the next stage 
 there is a change. Let the controversy arise between 
 two nations, and the Supreme Law, which is the Law 
 of Nations, establishes, not a judicial tribunal, but the 
 duel, as arbiter. What is true of our country is true of 
 other countries where civilization has a foothold, and 
 especially of France and Germany. The duel, though 
 abolished as arbiter at home, is continued as arbiter 
 abroad. And since it is recognized by International 
 Law and subjected to a code, it is in all respects an 
 Institution. War is an institution sanctioned by In- 
 ternational Law, as Slavery, wherever it exists, is an 
 institution sanctioned by Municipal Law. But this 
 institution is nothing but the duel of the Dark Ages, 
 prolonged into this generation, and showing itself in 
 portentous barbarism. 
 
 WHY THIS PARALLEL NOW? 
 
 Therefoee am I right, when I call the existing com- 
 bat between France and Germany a Duel. I beg you 
 to believe that I do this with no idle purpose of illus- 
 
SUDDENNESS OF THIS WAR. 249 
 
 tration or criticism, but because 1 would prepare the 
 way for a proper comprehension of the remedy to be 
 applied. How can this terrible controversy be adjusted ? 
 I see no practical method, which shall reconcile the 
 sensibilities of France with the guaranties due to Ger- 
 many, short of a radical change in the War System it- 
 self That Security for the Future which Germany 
 may justly exact can be obtained in no way so well as 
 by the disarmament of France, to be followed naturally 
 by the disarmament of other nations, and the substitu- 
 tion of some peaceful tribunal for the existing Trial by 
 Battle. Any dismemberment, or curtailment of terri- 
 tory, will be poor and inadequate ; for it will leave 
 behind a perpetual sting. Something better must be 
 done. 
 
 SUDDENNESS OF THIS WAR. 
 
 Never in history has so great a calamity descended 
 so suddenly upon the Human Family, unless we except 
 the earthquake toppling down cities and submerging a 
 whole coast in a single night. But how small all that 
 has ensued from any such convulsion, compared with 
 the desolation and destruction already produced by this 
 war! From the iirst murmur to the outbreak was a 
 brief moment of time, as between the flash of lightning 
 and the bursting of the thunder. 
 
 At the beginning of July there was peace without 
 suspicion of interruption. The Legislative Body had 
 just discussed a proposition for the reduction of the an- 
 nual Army Contingent. At Berlin the Parliament was 
 not in session. Count Bismarck was at his country 
 home in Pomerania, the King enjoying himself at Ems. 
 How sudden and unexpected the change will appear 
 
250 THE DUEL BETWEKN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 from an illustrative circumstance. M. Provost- Paradol, 
 of rare taleut and unhappy destiny, newly appointed 
 Minister to the United States, embarked at Havre on 
 the 1st of July, and reached Washington on the morn- 
 ing of the 14th of July. He assured me that when he 
 left France there was no talk or thought of war. Dur- 
 ing his brief summer voyage the whole startling event 
 had begun and culminated. Prince Leopold of Hohen- 
 zoUern-Sigmaringen being invited to become candidate 
 for the throne of Spain, France promptly sent her defi- 
 ance to Prussia, followed a few days later by formal 
 Declaration of War. The Minister was oppressed by 
 the grave tidings coming upon him so unprepared, and 
 sought relief in self-slaughter, being the first victim of 
 the war. Everything moved with a rapidity borrowed 
 from the new forces supplied by human invention, and 
 the Gates of War swung wide open. 
 
 CHALLENGE TO PRUSSIA. 
 
 A FEW incidents exhibit this movement. It was on 
 the 30th of June, while discussing the proposed reduc- 
 tion of the Army, that lllmile OUivier, the Prime-Minis- 
 ter, said openly : " The Government has no kind of dis- 
 quietude ; at no epoch has the maintenance of peace 
 been more assured ; on whatever side you look, you see 
 no irritating question under discussion." ^ In the same 
 debate, Garnier-Pag^s, the consistent Eepublican, and 
 now a member of the Provisional Government, after 
 asking, " Why these armaments ? " cried out : " Disarm, 
 without waiting for others : this is practical. Let the 
 people be relieved from the taxes which crush them, 
 
 1 Journal Offlciel du Soir, 3 JuiUet 1870. 
 
CHALLENGE TO PRUSSIA. 251 
 
 and from the heaviest of all, the tax of blood." ^ The 
 candidature of Prince Leopold seems to have become 
 known at Paris on the 5th of July. On the next day 
 the Due de Gramont, of a family famous in scandalous 
 history, Minister of Foreign Affairs, hurries to the tri- 
 bune with defiance ou his lips. After declaring for the 
 Cabinet that no foreign power could be suffered, by 
 placing one of its princes on the throne of Charles the 
 Fifth, to derange the balance of_ jiQwer in Europe, and 
 put in peril the interests and the honor of France, he 
 concludes by saying, in ominous words : " Strong in 
 your support, Gentlemen, and in that of the nation, we 
 shall know how to do our duty without hesitation and 
 without weakness."^ This defiance was followed by 
 what is called in the report, "general and prolonged 
 movement, — repeated applause " ; and here was the 
 first stage in the duel. Its character was recognized at 
 once in the Chamber. Garnier-Pag^s exclaimed, in 
 words worthy of memory : " It is dynastic questions 
 which trouble the peace of Europe. The people have 
 only reason to love .and aid each other." ^ Though 
 short, better than many long speeches. Cremieux, an 
 associate in the Provisional Government of 1848, in- 
 sisted that the utterance of the Minister was "a men- 
 ace of war " ; and Emmanuel Arago, son of the great 
 Republican astronomer and mathematician, said that 
 the Minister "had declared war."* These patriotic 
 representatives were not mistaken. The speech made 
 peace difficult, if not impossible. It was a challenge 
 to Prussia. 
 
 1 Journal Offioiel du Soir, 2 Juillet 1870. 
 
 » Ibid., 8 Jumet. » Ibid. < ibid. 
 
252 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEEMANY. 
 
 COMEDY. 
 
 EuEOPE watched with dismay as the gauntlet was 
 thus rudely flung down, while on this side of the At- 
 lantic, where France and Germany commingle in the 
 enjoyment of our equal citizenship, the interest was 
 intense. Morning and evening the telegraph made us 
 all partakers of the hopes and fears agitating the world. 
 Too soon it was apparent that the exigence of France 
 would not be satisfied, while already her preparations 
 for war were undisguised. At all the naval stations, 
 from Toulon to Cherbourg, the greatest activity pre- 
 vailed. Marslial MacMahon was recalled from Algeria, 
 and transports were made ready to bring back the 
 troops from that colony. 
 
 Meanwhile the candidature of Prince Leopold was 
 renounced by him. But this was not enough. The 
 King of Prussia was asked to promise that it should 
 in no event ever be renewed, — which he declined to 
 do, reserving to himself the liberty of consulting cir- 
 cumstances. This requirement was the more offensive, 
 inasmuch as it was addressed ,. exclusively .to Prussia, 
 while nothing was said to Spain, t he principal in the 
 business. Then ensued an incident proper for comedy, 
 if it had not become the declared cause of tragedy. 
 The French Ambassador, Count Benedetti, who, on in- 
 telligence of the candidature, had followed the King 
 to Ems, his favorite watering-place, and there in succes- 
 sive interviews pressed him to order its withdrawal, 
 now, on its voluntary re nun ciation, proceeding to urge 
 the new demand, and after an extended conversation, 
 and notwithstanding its decided refusal, seeking, nev- 
 ertheless, another audience the same day on this subject. 
 
PRETEXT OF THE TELEG-RAM. 253 
 
 his Majesty, with perfect politeness, sent him word by 
 an adjutant in attendance, that he had no other answer 
 to make than the one already given : and this refusal 
 to receive the Ambassador was promptly communicated 
 by telegraph, for the information especially of the dif- 
 ferent German governments.^ 
 
 PEETEXT OF THE TELEGRAM. 
 
 These simple facts, insufficient for the slightest quar- 
 rel, intolerable in the pettiness of the issue disclosed, 
 and monstrous as reason for war between two civilized 
 nations, became the welcome pretext. Swiftly, and 
 with ill-disguised alacrity, the French Cabinet took the 
 next step in the duel. On the 15th of July the Prime- 
 Minister read from the tribune a manifesto setting forth 
 the griefs of France, — being, first, the refusal of the 
 Prussian King to promise for the future, and, secondly, 
 his refusal to receive the French Ambassador, with the 
 communication of this refusal, as was alleged, " official- 
 ly to the Cabinets of Europe," which was a mistaken 
 allegation: 2 and the paper concludes by announcing 
 that since the preceding day the Government had called 
 in the reserves, and that they would immediately take 
 the measures necessary to secure the interests, the safe- 
 ty, and the honor of France.^ This was war. 
 
 1 Bismarck to Bernstorff, July 19, 1870, with Inclosures : Parliamentary 
 Papers, 1870, Vol. LXX., — Franco-Prussian;, War, No. 3, pp. 5-8. Gerolt 
 to Fish, August 11, 1870, with Inclosures ; Executive Documents, 41st 
 Cong. 3d Sess., H. of R., Vol. I. No. 1, Part 1, — Foreign Relations, pp. 
 219-221. The reader will notice that the copy of the Telegram in this 
 latter volume is the paper on p. 221, with the erroneous heading, " Count 
 BisTnarck to Baron Gerolt." 
 
 3 Bismarck to Bernstorff, July 18, and to Gerolt, July 19, 1870 : Parlia- 
 mentary Papers and Executive Documents, Inclosures, ubi supra. 
 
 8 Journal Officiel du Soir, 17 Juillet 1870. 
 
254 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 Some there were who saw the fearful calamity, the 
 ghastly crime, then and there initiated. The scene that 
 ensued belongs to this painful record. The paper an- 
 nouncing war was followed by prolonged applause. 
 The Prime-Minister added soon after in debate, that he 
 accepted the responsibility with " a light heart." ^ Not 
 all were in this mood. Esquiros, the Eepublican, cried 
 from his seat, in momentous words, " You have a light 
 heart, and the blood of nations is about to flow ! " To 
 the apology of the Prime-Minister, "that in the dis- 
 charge of a duty the heart is not troubled," Jules Favre, 
 ihe Republican leader, of acknowledged moderation and 
 ability, flashed forth, " When the discharge of this duty 
 involves the slaughter of two nations, one may well 
 have the heart troubled ! " Beyond these declarations, 
 giving utterance to the natural sentiments of humanity, 
 was the positive objection, most forcibly presented by 
 Thiers, so famous in the Chamber and in literature, 
 " that the satisfaction due to France had been accorded 
 her, — that Prussia had expiated by a check the grave 
 fault she had committed," — that France had prevailed 
 in substance, and all that remained was " a question of 
 form," " a question of susceptibility," " questions of eti- 
 quette." The experienced statesman asked for the dis- 
 patches. Then came a confession. The Prime-Minister 
 replied, that he had "nothing to communicate, — that, in 
 the true sense of the term, there had been no dispatches, 
 — that there were only verbal communications gathered 
 up in reports, which, according to diplomatic usage, are 
 not communicated." Here Emmanuel Arago interrupt- 
 ed ; " It is on these rejports-tlrat-y-eiijQiake war ! " The 
 
 1 " De ce jour commence pour les miuistres mes collogues, et pour moi 
 une grande responsibiliU. {" Om \ " d gauche.] Nous I'acceptons, le coeur 
 leger." 
 
PRETEXT OF THE TELEGRAM. 255 
 
 Prime-Minister proceeded to read two brief telegrams 
 from Count Benedetti at Ems, when De Choiseul very 
 justly exclaimed: "We cannot maJce war on that ground; 
 it is impossible ! " Others cried out from their seats, — 
 Garnier-Pages saying, " These are phrases " ; Emman- 
 uel Arago protesting, " On this the civilized world will 
 pronounce you wrong " ; to which Jules Favre added, 
 " Unhappily, true ! " Thiers and Jules Favre, with 
 vigorous eloquence, charged the war upon the Cabinet : 
 Thiers declaring, " I regret to be obliged to say that we 
 have war by the fault of the Cabinet " ; Jules Favre 
 alleging, " If we have war, it is thanks to the politics of 
 the Cabinet ; . . . . from the exposition that has been 
 made, so far as the general interests of the two countries 
 are concerned, there is no avowable motive for war." 
 Girault exclaimed, in similar spirit : " We would be 
 amoug the first to come forward in a war for the coun- 
 try, but we do not wish to come forward in a dynastic 
 and aggressive war." The Due de Gramout, who on the 
 6th of July flung down the gauntlet, spoke once more 
 for the Cabinet, stating solemnly, what was not the fact, 
 that the Prussian Government had communicated to all 
 the Cabinets of Europe the refusal to receive the French 
 Ambassador, and then on this misstatement ejaculating: 
 " It is an outrage on the Emperor and on France ; and 
 if, by impossibility, there were found in my country a 
 Chamber to bear and tolerate it, I would not remain five 
 minutes Minister of Foreign Affairs." In our country 
 we have seen how the Southern heart was fired ; so also 
 was fired the heart of France. The Duke descended 
 from the tribune amidst prolonged applause, with cries 
 of " Bravo ! " — and at his seat (so says the report) " re- 
 ceived numerous felicitations." Such was the atmosphere 
 
256 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 of the Chamber at this eventful moment. The orators 
 of the Opposition, pleading for delay in the interest ot 
 peace, were stifled ; and when G-ambetta, the young and 
 fearless Eepublican, made himself heard in calling for 
 the text of the dispatch communicating the refusal to 
 receive the Ambassador, to the end that the Chamber, 
 France, and all Europe might judge of its character, he 
 was answered by the Prime-Minister with the taunt 
 that "for the first time in a French Assembly there 
 were such difficulties on a certain side in explaining a 
 question of honor." Such was the case as presented by 
 the Prime-Minister, and on this question of honor he 
 accepted war " with a light heart." Better say, with no 
 heart at all; — for whoso could find in this condition of 
 things sufficient reason for war was without heart.^ 
 
 During these brief days of solicitude, from the 6th to 
 the 15th of July, England made an unavailing effort 
 for peace. Lord Lyons was indefatigable; and he was 
 sustained at home by Lord Granville, who as a last re- 
 sort reminded the two parties of the stipulation at the 
 Congress of Paris, which they had accepted, in favor of 
 Arbitration as a substitute for War, and asked them to 
 accept the good oihces of some friendly power.^ This 
 most reasonable proposition was rejected by the French 
 Minister, who gave new point to the French case by 
 charging that Prussia " had chosen to declare that 
 France had been affronted in the person of her Ambas- 
 sador," and then positively insisting that " it was this 
 boast which was the gravamen of the offence." Capping 
 
 1 For the full debate, see the Journal Officiel du Soir, 17 Juillet 1870 
 and Supplement. 
 
 2 Earl Granville to Lords Lyons and Loftus, July 15, 1870 Corre- 
 spondence respecting the Negotiations preliminary to the War between 
 Fiance and Prussia, p. 35 ; Parliamentary Papers, 1870, Vol. LXX. 
 
PEETEXT OF THE TELEGEAM. 257 
 
 the climax of barbarous absurdity, the French Minister 
 did not hesitate to announce that this "constituted an 
 insult which no nation of any spirit could brook, and 
 rendered it, much to the regret of the French Govern- 
 ment, impossible to take into consideration the mode 
 of settling the original matter in dispute which was 
 recommended by her Majesty's Government." i Thus 
 was peaceful Arbitration repelled. All honor to the 
 English Government for proposing it ! 
 
 The famous telegram put forward by France as the 
 gravamen, or chief offence, was not communicated to the 
 Chamber. The Prime-Minister, though hard-pressed, 
 held it back. Was it from conviction of its too trivial 
 character ? But it is not lost to the history of the duel. 
 This telegram, with something of the brevity peculiar to 
 telegraphic dispatches, merely reports the refusal to see 
 the French Ambassador, without one word of affront or 
 boast. It reports the fact, and nothing else ; and it is 
 understood that the refusal was only when this func- 
 tionary presented himself a second time in one day on 
 the same business. Considering the interests involved, 
 it would have been better, had the King seen him as 
 many times as he chose to call ; yet the refusal was not 
 unnatural. The perfect courtesy of his Majesty on this 
 occasion furnished no cause of complaint. All that re- 
 mained for pretext was the telegram.^ 
 
 1 Lord Lyons to Earl Granville, July 15, 1870, — Correspondence respect- 
 ing the Negotiations preliminary to the War between France and Prussia, 
 pp. 39, 40 : Parliamentary Papers, 1870, Vol. LXX. 
 
 2 See references, ante, p. 19, Note 1. For this telegram in the original, 
 see Aegidi und Klauhold, Staatsarchiv, (Hamburg, 1870,) 19 Band, s. 44, 
 No. 4033. 
 
258 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEEMANY. 
 
 FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR. 
 
 The scene in the Legislative Body was followed by 
 the instant introduction of bills making additional ap- 
 propriations for the Army and Navy, calling out the 
 National Guard, and authorizing volunteers for the war. 
 This last proposition was commended by the observa- 
 tion that in France there were a great many young peo- 
 ple liking powder, but not liking barracks, who would 
 in this way be suited ; and tliis was received with ap- 
 plause.' On the 18th of July there was a further 
 appropriation to the extent of 500 million francs,— 
 440 millions being for the Army, and 60 for the Navy ; 
 and an increase from 150 to 500 millions Treasury 
 notes was authorized.^ On the 20th of July the Due 
 de Gramont appeared once more in the tribune, and 
 made the following speech : — 
 
 " Conformably to customary rules, and by order of the 
 Emperor, I have invited the Charge d' Affaires of France to 
 notify the Berlin Cabinet of our resolution to seek by arms 
 the guaranties which we have not been able to obtain by 
 discussion. This step has been taken, and I have the honor 
 of making known to the Legislative Body that in consequence 
 a state of war exists between France and Prussia, beginning 
 the 19th of July. This declaration applies equally to the 
 allies of Prussia who lend her the cooperation of their arms 
 against us." ^ 
 
 Here the French Minister played the part of trum- 
 peter in the duel, making proclamation before his cham- 
 pion rode forward. According to the statement of Count 
 Bismarck, made to the Parliament at Berlin, this formal 
 
 1 Journal Officiel du Soir, 17 Juillet 1870. 
 
 2 Ibid., 20 Juillet. a Ibid., 23 Juillet. 
 
FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR. 259 
 
 Declaration of War was the solitary official communi- 
 cation from France in this whole transaction, being the 
 first and only note since the candidature of Prince 
 Leopold.^ How swift this madness will be seen in a 
 few dates. On the 6th of July was uttered the first 
 defiance from the French tribune ; on the 15th of July 
 an exposition of the griefs of France, in the nature 
 of a Declaration of War, with a demand for men and 
 money; on the 19th of July a state of war was de- 
 clared to exist. 
 
 Firmly, but in becoming contrast with the "light 
 heart " of France, this was promptly accepted by Ger- 
 many, whose heart and strength found expression in the 
 speech of the King' at the opening of Parliament, hastily 
 assembled on the 19th of July. With articulation dis- 
 turbed by emotion and with moistened eyes, his Majesty 
 said : — 
 
 " Supported by the unanimous will of the German govern- 
 ments of the South as of the North, we turn the more con- 
 fidently to the love of Fatherland and the cheerful self- 
 devotion of the German people, with a call to the defence 
 of their honor and their independence." ^ 
 
 Parliament responded sympathetically to the King, 
 and made the necessary appropriations. And thus the 
 two champions stood front to front. 
 
 1 Substance of Speech of Bismarck to the Reichstag, [July 20, 1870,] 
 explanatory of Documents relating to the Declaration of War, — Franco,- 
 Prussian War, No. 3, p. 29 : Parliamentary Papers, 1870, Vol. LXX. Dis- 
 cours du Comte de Bismarck au Reichstag, le 20 Juillet 1870 : Angeberg, 
 [Chodzko,] Recueil des Traites, etc., concernant la GueiTc Franco-AUe- 
 mande, Tom. I. p. 215. 
 
 2 Aegidi und Klauhold, Staatsarchiv, 19 Band, s. 107, No. 4056. Parlia- 
 mentary Papers, 1870, Vol. LXX.: Franco-Prussian War, No. 3, pp. 2-3. 
 
260 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEA.NCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 THE TWO HOSTILE PARTIES. 
 
 Throughout France, throughout Germany, the trum- 
 pet sounded, and everywhere tlie people sprang to arms, 
 as if the great horu of Orlando, after a sleep of ages, 
 had sent forth once more its commanding summons. 
 Not a town, not a village, that the voice did not pene- 
 trate. Modern invention had supplied an ally beyond 
 anything in fable. From all parts of France, from all 
 parts of Germany, armed men leaped forward, leaving 
 behind tlie charms of peace and the business of life. 
 On each side the muster was mighty, armies counting 
 by the hundred thousand. And now, before we witness 
 the mutual slaughter, let us pause to consider the two 
 parties, and the issue between them. 
 
 France and Germany are most unlike, and yet the 
 peers of each other, while among the nations they are 
 unsurpassed in civilization, each prodigious in resources, 
 splendid in genius, and great in renown. No two na- 
 tions are so nearly matched. By Germany I now mean 
 not only the States constituting North Germany, but 
 also Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Bavaria of South Ger- 
 many, allies in the present war, all of which together 
 make about fifty-three millions of French hectares, be- 
 ing very nearly the area of France. The population of 
 each is not far from thirty-eight millions, and it would 
 be difficult to say which is the larger. Looking at fi- 
 nances, Germany has the smaller revenue, but also the 
 smaller debt, while her rulers, following the sentiment 
 of the people, cultivate a wise economy, so that here 
 again substantial equality is maintained with France. 
 The armies of the two, embracing regular troops and 
 those subject to call, did not differ much in numbers 
 
THE TWO HOSTILE PARTIES. 261 
 
 unless Tye set aside the authority of the "Almanach de 
 Gotha," which puts the military force of France some- 
 what vaguely at 1,350,000, while that of North Ger- 
 many 'is only 977,262, to which must be added 49,949 
 for Bavaria, 34,953 for Wiirtemberg, and 43,703 for 
 Baden, making a sum-total of 1,105,867. This, how- 
 ever, is chiefly on paper, where it is evident France 
 is stronger than in reality. Her available force at the 
 outbreak of the war probably did not amount to more 
 than 350,000 bayonets, while that of Germany, owing 
 to her superior system, was as much as. double this 
 number. In Prussia every man is obliged to serve, and, 
 still further, every man is educated. Discipline and 
 education are two potent adjuncts. This is favorable 
 to Germany. In the Chassepot and needle-gun the 
 two are equal. But France excels in a well-appointed 
 Navy, having no less than 55 iron-clads, and 384 other 
 vessels of war, while Germany has but 2 iron-clads, 
 and 87 other vessels of war.^ Then again for long 
 generations has existed another disparity, to the great 
 detriment of Germany. France has been a nation, 
 while Germany has been divided, and therefore weak. 
 Strong in union, the latter now claims something more 
 than that dominion of the air once declared to be hers, 
 while France had the land and England the sea.^ The 
 dominion of the land is at last contested, and we are 
 saddened inexpressibly, that, from the elevation they 
 
 1 For the foregoing statistics, see A Imanach de Gotha, 1870, under the 
 names of the several States referred to, — also, for Areas and Population, 
 Tableaux Comparatifs, I., II., III., in same volume, pp. 1037-38. 
 
 2 " So wie die Franzosen die Herren des Landes sind, die Engliinder die 
 des grossern Meeres, wir die der Beide und Alles umfassenden Luft sind." — 
 EiOHTER, (Jean Paul,) Frieden-Predigt an DetUschland, V. : Sammtliche 
 Werke, (Berlin, 1826-38,) TheU XXXIV. s. 13. 
 
262 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 have reached, these two peers of civilization can descend 
 to practise the barbarism of war, and especially that the 
 land of Descartes, Pascal, Voltaire, and Laplace must 
 challenge to bloody duel the land of Luther, Leibnitz, 
 Kant, and Humboldt. 
 
 FOLLY. 
 
 Plainly between these two neighboring powers there 
 has been unhappy antagonism, constant, if not increas- 
 ing, partly from the memory of other days, and partly 
 I because France could not bear to witness that German 
 \unity which was a national right and duty. Often it 
 has been said that war was inevitable. But it has come 
 at last by surprise, and on " a question of form." So it 
 was called by Thiers ; so it iVas recognized by Ollivier, 
 when he complained of insensibility to a question of 
 honor; and so also by the Due de Gramont, when he 
 referred it aU to a telegram. This is not the first time 
 in history that wars have been waged on trifles; but 
 since the Lord of Frauenstein challenged the free city 
 of Frankfort because a young lady of the city refused 
 to dance with his uncle, nothing has passed more ab- 
 surd than this challenge sent by France to Germany 
 because the King of Prussia refused to see the French 
 Ambassador a second time on the same matter, and 
 then let the refusal be reported by telegraph. Here is 
 the folly exposed by Shakespeare, when Hamlet touch- 
 es a madness greater than his own in that spirit which 
 would " fijid quarreh in a straw when honor 's at the 
 stake," and at the same time depicts an army 
 
 " Led by a delicate and tender prince, 
 
 Exposing what is mortal and unsure 
 
 To all that Fortune, Death, and Danger dare, 
 
 Even for an erjg-shdl. " 
 
UNJUST PRETENSION OF FRANCE. 263 
 
 There can be na quarrel in a straw or for an egg-shell, 
 unless men have gone mad. Nor can honor in a civil- 
 ized age require any sacrifice of reason or humanity. 
 
 UNJUST PRETENSION OF FRANCE TO INTERFERE WITH 
 THE CANDIDATURE OF HOHENZOLLERN. 
 
 If the utter triviality of the pretext were left doubt- 
 ful in the debate, if its towering absurdity were not 
 plainly apparent, if its simple wickedness did not al- 
 ready stand before us, we should find all these char- 
 acteristics glaringly manifest in that unjust pretension 
 which preceded the objection of form, on which France 
 finally acted. A few words will make this plain. 
 
 In a happy moment Spain rose against Queen Isa- 
 bella, and, amidst cries of " Down with the Bourbons ! " 
 drove her from the throne which she dishonored. This 
 was in September, 1868. Instead of constituting a Ee- 
 public at once, in harmony with those popular rights 
 which had been proclaimed, the half-hearted leaders 
 proceeded to look about for a King; and from that 
 time till now they have been in this quest, as if it were 
 the Holy Grail, or happiness on earth. The royal 
 family of Spain was declared incompetent. Therefore 
 a king must be found outside, — and so the quest was 
 continued in other lands. One day the throne is offered 
 to a prince of Portugal, then to a prince of Italy, but 
 declined by each, — how wisely the future will show. 
 At last, after a protracted pursuit of nearly two years, 
 the venturesome soldier who is Captain-General and 
 Prime-Minister, Marshal Prim, conceives the idea of 
 offering it to a prince of Germany. His luckless vic- 
 tim is Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a 
 
264 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 Catholic, thirty-five years of age, and colouel of the first 
 regiment of the Prussian foot-guards, whose father, a 
 mediatized German prince, resides at Diisseldorf ii^e 
 Prince had not the good sense to decline. How his 
 acceptance excited the French Cabinet, and became the 
 beginning of the French pretext, I have already ex- 
 posed; and now I come to the pretension itself 
 
 By what title did France undertake to interfere with 
 the choice of Spain ? If the latter ^vas so foolish as to 
 seek a foreigner for king, making a German first among 
 Spaniards, by what title did any other power attempt to 
 control its will ? To state the question is to answer it. 
 Beginning with an outrage on Spanish independence, 
 which the Spain of an earlier day would have resented, 
 the next outrage was on Germany, in assuming that an 
 insignificant prince of that country could not be per- 
 mitted to accept the invitation, — all of which, besides 
 being of insufferable insolence, was in that worst dynas- 
 tic spirit which looks to princes rather than the people. 
 Plainly France was unjustifiable. When I say it was 
 none of her business, I give it the mildest condemnation. 
 This was the first step in her monstrous blunder-crime. 
 
 Its character as a pretext becomes painfully manifest, 
 when we learn more of the famous Prince Leopold, thus 
 invited by Spain and opposed by France. It is true 
 that his family name is in part the same as that of the 
 Prussian king. Each is Hohenzollern ; but he adds Sig- 
 maringen to the name. The two are different branches 
 of the same family ; but you must ascend to the twelfth 
 (ientury, counting more than twenty degrees, before you 
 come to a common ancestor.^ And yet on this most 
 
 1 Conversations -Lexikon, (Leipzig, 1866,) 8 Band, art. Hohenzollern 
 Carlyle's History of Friedrioli II., (Loudon, 1858,) Book III. Ch. 1, Vol. 1. 
 p. 200. 
 
UNJUST PRETENSION OF FRANCE. 265 
 
 distant and infinitesimal relationship the French preten- 
 sion is founded. But audacity changes to the ridiculous, 
 when it is known that the Prince is nearer in relation- 
 ship to the French Emperor than to the Prussian King, 
 and this by three different intermarriages, which do not 
 go back to the twelfth century. Here is the case. His 
 grandfather had for wife a niece of Joachim Murat,i 
 King of Naples, and brother-in-law of the first Napo- 
 leon; and his father had for wife a daughter of Ste- 
 phanie de Beauharnais, an adopted daughter of the first 
 Napoleon ; so that Prince Leopold is by his father great- 
 grand-nephew of Murat, and by his mother he is grand- 
 son of Stephanie de Beauharnais, who was cousin and 
 by adoption sister of Hortense de Beauharnais, mother 
 of the present Emperor ; and to this may be added still 
 another connection, by the marriage of liis father's sister 
 with Joachim Napoleon, Marquis of Pepoli, grandson of 
 Joachim Murat.^ It was natural that a person thus 
 connected with the Imperial Family should be a wel- 
 come visitor at the Tuileries ; and it is easy to believe 
 that Marshal Prim, who offered him the throne, was 
 encouraged to believe that the Emperor's kinsman and 
 guest would be favorably regarded by France. And 
 yet, in the face of these things, and the three several 
 family ties, fresh and modern, binding him to France 
 and the French Emperor, the pretension was set up that 
 his occupation of the Spanish throne would put in peril 
 the interests and the honor of France. 
 
 1 Antoinette, daughter of Etienne Murat, third brother of Joachim. — 
 Biographic Generate, (Didot,)Tom. XXXVI. col. 984, art. Mubat, note. 
 
 2 Almanach de Gotha, 1870, pp. 85 -87, art. Hohenzollern-Sigmawngeh, 
 
266 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 BECAUSE FRANCE WAS READY. 
 
 In sending defiance to Prussia on this question, the 
 French Cabinet selected their own ground. Evidently a 
 war had been meditated, and the candidature of Prince 
 Leopold from beginning to end supplied a pretext. In 
 this conclusion, which is too obvious, we are hardly left 
 to inference. The secret was disclosed by Eouher, Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, lately the eloquent and unscrupulous 
 Minister, when, in an official address to the Emperor, 
 immediately after the War Manifesto read by the Prime- 
 Minister, he declared that France quivered with indig- 
 nation at the flights of an ambition over-excited by the 
 one day's good-fortune at Sadowa, and then proceeded: — 
 
 " Animated by that oalm perseverance which is true force, 
 your Majesty has known how to wait ; but in the last four 
 years you have carried to its highest perfection the arming of 
 our soldiers, and raised to its full power the organization of 
 our military forces. Thanhs to your care, Sire, France is 
 ready." ' 
 
 Thus, according to the President of the Senate, France, 
 after waiting, commenced war because she was ready, — 
 whUe, according to the Cabinet, it was on the point of 
 honor. Both were right. The war was declared be- 
 cause the Emperor thought himself ready, and a pretext 
 was found in the affair of the telegram. 
 
 Considering the age, and the present demands of 
 civilization, such a war stands forth terrific in wrong 
 making the soul rise indignant against it. One rea- 
 son avowed is brutal; the other is frivolous; both are 
 criminal. If we look into the text of the Manifesto 
 
 1 Address at the Palais de Samt-Cloud, July 16, 1870 ; Journal OfEciel 
 du Soir, 18 Juillet 1870. 
 
BECAUSE FRANCE WAS KEADY. 267 
 
 and the speeches of the Cabinet, it is a war founded on 
 a trifle, on a straw, on an egg-shell. Obviously these 
 were pretexts only. Therefore it is a war of pretexts, 
 the real object being the humiliation and dismember- 
 ment of G-ermany, in the vain hope of exalting the 
 French Empire and perpetuating a bawble crown on' 
 the head of a boy. By military success and a peace 
 dictated at Berlin, the Emperor trusted to find himself 
 in such condition, that, on return to Paris, he could 
 overthrow parliamentary government so far as it ex- 
 isted there, and reestablish personal government, where 
 all depended upon himself, — thus making triumph over 
 Germany the means of another triumph over the French ' 
 people. 
 
 In other times there have been wars as criminal 
 in origin, where trifle, straw, or egg-shell played its 
 part; but they contrasted less with the surrounding 
 civilization. To this list belong the frequent Dynastic 
 Wars, prompted by the interest, the passion, or the 
 whim of some one in the Family of Kings. Others 
 have begun in recklessness kindred to that we now 
 witness,— as when England entered into war with Hol- 
 land, and for reason did not hesitate to allege " abusive 
 pictures." ^ The England of Charles the Second was 
 
 1 Hume, History of England, Ch. LXV., March 17, 1672. — The terras of 
 the Declaration on this point were, — " Scarce a town within their territories 
 that is not filled with abusive pictures. " (Hansard's Parliamentary History, 
 Vol. IV. col. 514.) Upon which Hume remarks: "The Dutch were long at 
 a loss what to make of this article, till it was discovered that a portrait of 
 Cornelius de Witt, brother to the Pensionary, painted by order of certain 
 magistrates of Dort, and hung up in a chamber of the Town-House, had 
 given occasion to the complaint. In the perspective of this portrait the 
 painter had drawn some ships on fire in a harbor. This was construed to 
 be Chatham, where De Witt had really distinguished himself," during the 
 previous war, in the way here indicated, — " the disgrace " of which, says 
 Lingard, " sunk deep into the heart of the King and the hearts of his sub- 
 jects." — History of England, Vol. IX. Ch. III., June 13, 1667. 
 
268 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 hardly less sensitive than the France of Louis Napo- 
 leon, while in each was similar indifference to conse- 
 quences. But France has precedents of her own. 
 From the remarkable correspondence of the Princess 
 Palatine, Duchess of Orleans, we learn that the first . 
 war with Holland under Louis the Fourteenth was 
 brought on by the Minister, De Lionne, to injure a pet- 
 ty German prince who had made him jealous of his 
 wife.' The communicative and exuberant Saint-Simon 
 tells us twice over how Louvois, another Minister of 
 Louis the Fourteenth, being overruled by his master 
 with regard to the dimensions of a window at Ver- 
 sailles, was filled with the idea that " on account of a 
 few inches in a window," as he expressed it, all his 
 services would be forgotten, and therefore, to save his 
 place, excited a foreign war that would make him ne- 
 cessary to the King. The flames in the Palatinate, 
 devouring the works of man, attested his continuing 
 power. The war became general, but, according to the 
 chronicler, it ruined France at home, and did not extend 
 her domain abroad.^ The French Emperor confidently 
 expected to occupy the same historic region so often 
 burnt and ravaged by French armies, with that castle 
 of Heidelberg which repeats the tale of blood, — and, 
 let me say, expected it for no better reason than that 
 of his royal predecessor, stimulated by an unprincipled 
 Minister anxious for personal position. The parallel is 
 continued in the curse which the Imperial arms have 
 brought on France. 
 
 1 Briefe der Prinzessin Elisabeth Charlotte von Orleans an die Raugrafin 
 Louise, 1676-1722, herausg. von W. Menzel, (Stuttgart, 1843, ) — Paris 31 
 Mertz, 1718, s. 288. ' ' ' 
 
 a M^moires, (Paris, 1829,) Tom. VII. pp. 49-51; XIII pp. 9-10. 
 
PEOGEESS OF THE WAE. 269 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 
 
 How this war proceeded I need not recount. You 
 have all read the record day by day, sorrowing for Hu- 
 manity, — how, after briefest interval of preparation or 
 hesitation, the two combatants first crossed swords at 
 Saarbrlicken, within the German frontier, and the 
 young Prince Imperial performed his part in picking 
 up a bullet from the field, which the Emperor promptly 
 reported by telegraph to the Empress, — how this little 
 military success is all that was vouchsafed to the man 
 who began the war, — how soon thereafter victory fol- 
 lowed, first on the hill-sides of Wissembourg and then 
 of Woerth, shattering the army of MacMahon, to which 
 the Empire was looking so confidently, — how another 
 large army under Bazaine was driven within the strong 
 fortress of Metz, — how all the fortresses, bristling with 
 guns and frowning upon Germany, were invested, — 
 how battle followed battle on various fields, where 
 Death was the great conqueror, — how, with help of 
 modern art, war showed itself to be murder by ma- 
 chinery, — how MacMahon, gathering together his scat- 
 tered men and strengthening them with reinforcements, 
 attempted to relieve Bazaine, — how at last, after long 
 marches, his large army found itself shut up at Sedan 
 with a tempest of fire beating upon its huddled ranks, 
 so that its only safety was capitulation, — how with the 
 capitulation of the army was the submission of the 
 Emperor himself, who gave his sword to the King of 
 Prrrssia and became prisoner of war, — and how, on the 
 reception of this news at Paris, Louis ISTapoleon and his 
 dynasty were divested of their powers and the Empire 
 was lost in the Eepublic. These thifigs you know. I 
 
270 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 need not dwell on them. Not to battles and their fear- 
 ful vicissitudes, where all is incarnadined with blood, 
 must we look, but to the ideas which prevail, — as for 
 the measure of time we look, not to the pendulum m 
 its oscillations, but to the clock in the tower, whose 
 striking tells the hours. A great hour for Humanity- 
 sounded when the Eepublic was proclaimed. And this 
 I say, even should it fail again ; for every attempt con- 
 tributes to the final triumph. 
 
 A WAR OF SURPRISES. 
 
 The war, from the pretext at its beginning to the 
 capitulation at Sedan, has been a succession of si^ir- 
 prises, where the author of the pretext was a constant 
 sufferer. Nor is this strange. Falstaff says, with hu- 
 morous point, " See now how wit may be made a Jack- 
 a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment!"^ — and an- 
 other character, in a play of Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 reveals the same evil destiny in stronger terms, when 
 he says, — 
 
 " Hell gives us art to reach the depth of sin. 
 But leaves us wretched fools, when we are in." 2 
 
 And this was precisely the condition of the French 
 Empire. Germany perhaps had one surprise, at the 
 sudden adoption of the pretext for war. But the Em- 
 pire has known nothing but surprise. A fatal surprise 
 ''was the promptitude with which all the German States, 
 outside of Austrian rule, accepted the leadership of 
 Prussia, and joined their forces to hers. Differences 
 were forgotten, — whether the hate of Hanover, the 
 
 1 Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V. Sc. 5. 
 
 2 Queen of Corinth, Act IV. Sc. 3. 
 
A WAK OF SURPRISES. 271 
 
 Iread of Wiirtemberg, the coolness of Bavaria, the oppo- 
 sition of Saxony, or the impatience of the Hanse Towns 
 it lost importance. Hanover would not rise ; the other 
 States and cities would not be detached. On the day 
 ifter the reading of the War Manifesto at the French 
 ;ribune, even before the King's speech to the Northern 
 Parliament, the Southern States began to move. Ger- 
 man unity stood firm, and this was the supreme sur- 
 Drise for France with which the war began. On one 
 lay the Emperor in his Official Journal declares his ob- 
 ect to be the deliverance of Bavaria from Prussian op- 
 Dression, and on the very next day the Crown Prince of 
 Prussia, at the head of Bavarian troops, crushes an Im- 
 Derial army. 
 
 Then came the manifest inferiority of the Imperial 
 irmy, everywhere outnumbered, which was another sur- 
 Drise, — the manifest inferiority of the Imperial artil-, 
 ery, also a surprise, — the manifest inferiority of the 
 imperial generals, still a surprise. Above these was a 
 arevailing inefficiency and improvidence, which very 
 soon became conspicuous, and this was a surprise. The 
 strength of Germany, as now exhibited, was a surprise. 
 kud when the German armies entered France, every 
 itep was a surprise. Wissembourg was a surprise ; so 
 vas Woerth ; so was Beaumont ; so was Sedan. Every 
 jncounter was a surprise. Abel Douay, the French 
 general, who fell bravely fighting at Wissembourg, the 
 irst sacrifice on the battle-field, was surprised; so was 
 VlacMahon, not only at the beginning, but at the end. 
 Ee thought that the King and Crown Prince were 
 narching on Paris. So they were, — but they turned 
 iside for a few days to surprise a whole army of more 
 ihan a hundred thousand men, terrible with cannon and 
 
272 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 newly invented implements of war, under a Marshal 
 of France, and with an Emperor besides. As this suc- 
 cession of surprises was crowned with what seemed the 
 greatest surprise of all, there remained a greater still in 
 the surprise of the French Empire. No Greek Nemesis 
 with unrelenting hand ever dealt more incessantly the 
 unavoidable blow, until the Empire fell as a dead body 
 falls, while the Emperor became a captive and the Em- 
 press a fugitive, with their only child a fugitive also. 
 The poet says : — ■ 
 
 " Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
 III sceptred pall come sweeping by."l 
 
 It has swept before the eyes of all. Beneath that scep- 
 tred pall is the dust of a gi'eat Empire, founded and 
 ruled by Louis Napoleon ; if not the dust of the Em- 
 peror also, it is because he was willing to sacrifice others 
 rather than himself. 
 
 OTHER FRENCH SOVEREIGNS CAPTURED OK THE 
 BATTLE-FIELD. 
 
 Twice before have French sovereigns yielded on the 
 battle-field, and become prisoners of war ; but never 
 before was capitulation so vast. Do their fates fur- 
 nish any lesson ? At the Battle of Poitiers, memorable 
 in English history, John, King of France, became the 
 prisoner of Edward the Black Prince. His nobles, one 
 after another, fell by his side, but he contended val- 
 iantly to the last, until, spent with fatigue and over- 
 come by numbers, he surrendered. His son, of the 
 same age as the son of the French Emperor, was 
 
 1 Milton, II Penseroso, 97-98. 
 
OTHER FRENCH SOVEREIGNS CAPTURED. 273 
 
 wounded while battling for his father. The courtesy 
 of the English Prince conquered more than his arms. 
 I quote the language of Hume: — 
 
 " More touched by Edward's generosity than by his own 
 calamities, he confessed, that, notwithstanding his defeat and 
 captivity, his honor was still unimpaired, and that, if he 
 yielded the victory, it was at least gained by a prince of such 
 consummate valor and humanity. " * 
 
 The King was taken to England, where, after swelling 
 the triumphal pageant of his conqueror, he made a dis- 
 graceful treaty for the dismemberment of France, which 
 the indignant nation would not ratify. A captivity of 
 more than four years was terminated by a ransom of 
 three million crowns in gold, ■ — an enormous sum, more 
 than ten million dollars in our day. Evidently the King 
 was unfortunate, for he did not continue in France, but, 
 under the influence of motives differently stated, re- 
 turned to England, where he died. Surely here is a 
 lesson. 
 
 More famous than John was Francis, with salaman- 
 der crest, also King of France, and rich in gayety, 
 whose countenance, depicted by that art of which he 
 was the patron, stands forth conspicuous in the line of 
 kings. As the French Emperor attacked Germany, so 
 did the King enter Italy, and he was equally confident 
 of victory. On the field of Pavia he encountered an 
 army of Charles the Fifth, but commanded by his gen- 
 erals, when, after fighting desperately and killing seven 
 men with his own hand, he was compelled to surrender. 
 His mother was at the time Eegent of France, and to 
 
 1 History of England, (Oxford, 1826,) Ch. XVI., VoL II. p. 407. 
 
274 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 her he is said to have written the sententious letter, 
 " All is lost except honor." No such letter was written 
 by Francis,! nor do we know of any such letter by Louis 
 Napoleon; but the situation of the two Eegents was 
 identical. Here are the words in which Hume describes 
 the condition of the earlier : — 
 
 " The Princess was struck with the greatness of the calam- 
 ity. She saw the kingdom without a sovereign, without an 
 army, without generals, without money, surrounded on every 
 side by implacable and victorious enemies ; and her chief re- 
 source, in her present distresses, were the hopes which she 
 entertained of peace, and even of assistance from the King 
 of England." = 
 
 Francis became the prisoner of Charles the Fifth, 
 and was conveyed to Madrid, where, after a year of 
 captivity, he was at length released, crying out, as he 
 crossed the French frontier, " Behold me King again !"^ 
 Is not the fate of Louis Napoleon prefigured in the ex- 
 ile and death of his royal predecessor John, rather than 
 in the return of Francis with his delighted cry ? 
 
 LOUIS NAPOLEON". 
 
 The fall of Louis Napoleon is natural. It is hard to 
 see how it could be otherwise, so long as we continue to 
 
 " assert eternal Providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men." i 
 
 Had he remained successful to the end, and died peace- 
 
 1 Sismondi, Histoire des Fran9ais, Tom. XVI. pp. 241 - 42. Martin His- 
 toire de Prance, (4eme ^dit.,) Tom. VIII. pp. 67, 68. ' 
 
 2 History of England, (Oxford, 1826,) Ch. Xx'lX., Vol. IV. p. 51 
 8 Sismondi, Tom. XVI. p. 277. Martin, Tom. VIII. p.' 90. ' ' 
 
 ^ Paradise Lost, Book I. 25-26. 
 
LOUIS NAPOLEON. 275 
 
 fully on the throne, his name would have been a per- 
 petual encouragement to dishonesty and crime. By 
 treachery -without parallel, breaking repeated promises 
 and his oath of office, he was able to trample on the 
 Eepublic. Taking his place in the National Assembly 
 after long exUe, the adventurer made haste to declare 
 exultation in regaining his country and all his rights as 
 citizen, with the ejaculation, " The Eepublic has given 
 me this happiness : let the Eepublic receive my oath 
 of gratitude, my oath of devotion ! " — and next he pro- 
 claimed that there was nobody to surpass him in deter- 
 mined consecration " to the defence of order and to the 
 establishment of the Eepublic." ^ Good words these. 
 Then again, when candidate for the Presidency, in a 
 manifesto to the electors he gave another pledge, an- 
 nouncing that he " would devote himself altogether, 
 without mental reservation, to the establishment of a 
 Eepublic, wise in its laws, honest in its intentions, great 
 and strong in its acts " ; and he volunteered further 
 words, binding him in special loyalty, saying that he 
 " should make it a point of lionor to leave to his succes- 
 sor, at the end of four years, power strengthened, liberty 
 intact, real progress accomplished." ^ How these plain 
 and unequivocal engagements were openly broken you 
 shall see. 
 
 Chosen by the popular voice, his inauguration took 
 place as President of the Eepublic, when he solemnly 
 renewed the engagements already assumed. Ascending 
 from his seat in the Assembly to the tribune, and hold- 
 ing up his hand, he took the following oath of office : 
 "In presence of God, and before the French people, 
 
 1 S(5ance dn 26 Septembre 1848: Moniteur, 27 Septembre. 
 
 2 A ses Coucitoyens: (Euvres, Tom. III. p. 25. 
 
276 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 represeDted by the National Assembly, I swear to re- 
 main faithful to the Democratic Eepublic One and 
 Indivisible, and to fulfil aU the duties which the Con- 
 stitution imposes upon me." This was an oath. Then, 
 addressing tlie Assembly, he said : " The suffrages of the 
 nation and the oath which I have just taken prescribe 
 my future conduct. My duty is marked out. I will 
 fulfil it as a man of honor." Again he attests his 
 honor. Then, after deserved tribute to his immediate 
 predecessor and rival, General Cavaignac, on his loyalty 
 of character, and that sentiment of duty which he de- 
 clares to be " the first quality in the chief of a State," 
 he renews his vows to the Republic, saying, " We have. 
 Citizen Representatives, a great mission to fulfil ; it is 
 to found a Eepublic in the interest of all " ; and he 
 closed amidst cheers for the Republic^ And yet, in the 
 face of this oath of office and this succession of most 
 solemn pledges, where he twice attests his honor, he 
 has hardly become President before he commences plot- 
 ting to make himself Emperor, until, at last, by violence 
 and blood, with brutal butchery in the streets of Paris, 
 he succeeded in overthrowing the Republic, to which he 
 was bound by obligations of gratitude and duty, as well 
 as by engagements in such various form. The Empire 
 was declared. Then followed his marriage, and a dynas- 
 tic ambition to assure the crown for his son. 
 
 Early in life a " Charcoal " conspirator against kings,^ 
 he now became a crowned conspirator against repub- 
 lics. The name of Eepublic was to him a reproof, while 
 its glory was a menace. Against the Roman Eepublic 
 he conspired early; and when the rebellion waged 
 
 1 Sfance du 20 Decembre 1848: Moniteur, 21 D^cemlire. 
 « A member of the secret society of the Carbonan in Italy. 
 
LOUIS NAPOLEON. 277 
 
 by Slavery seemed to afford opportunity, he conspired 
 against our Eepublic, pronjotiug as far as he dared the 
 independence of the Slave States, and at the same time 
 on the ruins of the Mexican Eepublic setting up a mock 
 Empire. In similar spirit has he conspired against Ger- 
 man Unity, whose just strength promised to be a wall 
 against his unprincipled self-seeking. 
 
 This is but an outline of that incomparable perfidy, 
 which, after a career of seeming success, is brought to a 
 close. Of a fallen man I would say nothing ; but, for 
 the sake of Humanity, Louis Napoleon should be ex- 
 posed. He was of evil example, extending with his 
 influence. To measure the vastness of this detriment 
 is impossible. In sacrificing the Eepublic to his own 
 aggrandizement, in ruling for a dynasty rather than 
 the people, in subordinating the peace of the world to 
 his own wicked ambition for his boy, he set an exam- 
 ple of selfishness, and in proportion to his triumph was 
 mankind corrupted in its judgment of human conduct. 
 Teaching men to seek ascendency at the expense of 
 duty, he demoralized not only France, but the world. 
 Unquestionably part of this evil example was his false- 
 hood to the Eepublic. Promise, pledge, honor, oath, 
 were all violated in this monstrous treason. Never in 
 history was greater turpitude. Unquestionably he could 
 have saved the Eepublic, but he preferred his own exal- 
 tation. As I am a Eepublican, and believe republican 
 institutions for the good of mankind, I cannot pardon 
 the traitor. The people of France are ignorant ; he did 
 not care to have them educated, for their ignorance was 
 his strength. With education bestowed, the Eepublic 
 would have been assured. And even after the Empire, 
 had he thought more of education and less of his dy- 
 
278 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 nasty, there would have been a civilization throughout 
 France making war impossible. Unquestionably the 
 present war is his work, instituted for his imagined ad- 
 vantage. Bacon, in one of his remarkable Essays, tells 
 us that " Extreme self-lovers will set an house on fire, 
 and it were but to roast their eggs." ^ Louis Napoleon 
 has set Europe on fire to roast his. 
 
 Beyond the continuing offence of his public life, I 
 charge upon him three special and unpardonable crimes : 
 first, that violation of public duty and public faith, con- 
 trary to all solemnities of promise, by which the whole 
 order of society was weakened and human character was 
 degraded; secondly, disloyalty to republican institutions, 
 so that through him the Eepublic has been arrested in 
 Europe ; and, thirdly, this cruel and causeless war, of 
 which he is the guilty author. 
 
 EETRIBUTIOlSr. 
 
 Of familiar texts in Scripture, there is one which, 
 since the murderous outbreak, has been of constant ap- 
 plicability and force. You know it : " All they that 
 take the sword shall perish with the sword " : ^ and these 
 words are addressed to nations as to individuals. France 
 took the sword against Germany, and now lies bleeding 
 at every pore. Louis Napoleon took the sword, and is 
 nought. Already in that coup d'etat by which he over- 
 threw the Eepublic he took the sword, and now the 
 Empire, which was the work of his hands, expires. In 
 Mexico again he took the sword, and again paid the 
 fearful penalty, — while the Austrian Archduke, who, 
 
 1 Of Wisdom for a Man's Self : Essay XXIII. 
 
 2 Matthew, xxvi. t>%. 
 
EETEIBUTION. 279 
 
 yielding to his pressure, made himself Emperor there, 
 was shot by order of the Mexican President, an Indian 
 of unmixed blood. And here there was retribution, not 
 only for the French Emperor, but far beyond. I know 
 not if there be invisible threads by which the Present 
 is attached to the distant Past, making the descendant 
 suffer even for a distant ancestor, but I cannot forget 
 that Maximilian was derived from that very family of 
 Charles the Fifth, whose' conquering general, Cortes, 
 stretched the Indian Guatemozin upon a bed of fire, 
 and afterwards executed him on a tree. The death of 
 Maximilian was tardy retribution for the death of Gua- 
 temozin. And thus in this world is wrong avenged, 
 sometimes after many generations. The fall of the 
 French Emperor is an illustration of that same retri- 
 bution which is so constant. While he yet lives, judg- 
 ment has begun. 
 
 If I accumulate instances, it is because the certainty 
 of , retribution for wrong, and especially for the great 
 wrong of War, is a lesson of the present duel to be im- 
 pressed. Take notice, all who would appeal to war, 
 that the way of the transgressor is hard, and sooner or 
 later he is overtaken. The ban may fall tardily, but it 
 is sure to fall. 
 
 Eetribution in another form has already visited France ; 
 nor is its terrible vengeance yet spent. ISTot only are 
 populous cities, all throbbing with life and filled with 
 innocent households, subjected to siege, but to bombard- 
 ment also, — being that most ruthless trial of war, where 
 non-combatants, including women and children, sick 
 and aged, share with the soldier his peculiar perils, and 
 suffer alike with him. All are equal before the hideous 
 $hell, crashing, bursting, destroying, killing, and changing 
 
280 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 the fairest scene into blood-spattered wreck. Against 
 its vengeful, slaughterous descent there is no protection 
 for the people, — nothing but an uncertain shelter in 
 cellars, or, it may be, in the common sewers. Already 
 Strasbourg, Toul, and Metz have been called to endure 
 this indiscriminate massacre, where there is no distinc- 
 tion of persons ; and now the same fate is threatened 
 to Paris the Beautiful, with its thronging population 
 counted by the million. Thus is the ancient chalice 
 which France handed to others now commended to her 
 own lips. It was France that first in history adopted 
 this method of war. Long ago, under Louis the Four- 
 teenth, it became a favorite ; but it has not escaped the 
 judgment of history. Voltaire, with elegant pen, re- 
 cords that "this art, carried soon among other nations, 
 served only to multiply human calamities, and more 
 than once was dreadful to France, where it was in- 
 vented." ^ The bombardment of Luxembourg in 1683 
 drew from Sismondi, always humane and refined, words 
 applicable to recent events. " Louis the Fourteenth," 
 he says, "had been the first to put in practice this 
 atrocious and newly invented method of bombarding 
 towns, .... of attacking, not fortifications, but private 
 houses, not soldiers, but peaceable inhabitants, women 
 and children, and of confounding thousands of private 
 crimes, each one of which would cause horror, in one 
 great public crime, one great disaster, which he regarded 
 as nothing more than one of the catastrophes of war." ^ 
 Again is the saying fulfilled, " All they that take the 
 sword shall perish with the sword." No lapse of time 
 
 1 Siicle de Louis XIV., Ch. XIV. : (Euvres, (ddit. 1784-89 ) Tom XX 
 p. 406. 
 
 2 Histoire des Fran^ais, Tom. XXV. pp. 452-53. 
 
PEACE AFTER CAPITULATION AT SEDAN. 281 
 
 can avert th,e inexorable law. Macbeth saw it in his 
 terrible imaginings, when he said, — 
 
 "But ill these cases 
 We still have judgment here, — that we hut teach 
 Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
 To plague the inventor." 
 
 And what instruction more bloody than the bombard- 
 ment of a city, which now returns to plague the French 
 people ? 
 
 Thus is history something more even than philosophy 
 teaching by example ; it is sermon with argument and 
 exhortation. The simple record of nations preaches ; 
 and whether you regard reason or the affections, it is 
 the same. If nations were wise or humane, they would 
 not fight. 
 
 PEACE AFTER CAPITULATION AT SEDAN. 
 
 Vain are lessons of the past or texts of prudence 
 against that spirit of War which finds sanction and 
 regulation in International Law. So long as the war 
 system continues, men will fight. While I speak, the 
 two champions still stand front to front, Germany ex- 
 ulting in victory, but France in no respect submissive. 
 The duel still rages, although one, of the champions is 
 pressed to earth, as in that early combat where the 
 ChevaKer Bayard, so eminent in chivalry, thrust his 
 dagger into the nostrils of his fallen foe, and then 
 dragged his dead body off the field. History now re- 
 peats itself, and we witness in Germany the very con- 
 duct condemned in the famous French knight. 
 
 The French Emperor was the aggressor. He began 
 this fatal duel. Let him fall, — but not the people 
 of France. Cruelly already have they expiated theii 
 
282 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEKMANY. 
 
 offence in accepting such a ruler. Not always should 
 they suffer. Enough of waste, enough of sacrifice, 
 enough of slaughter have they undergone. Enough 
 have they felt the accursed hoof of War. 
 
 It is easy to see now, that, after the capitulation at 
 Sedan, there was a double mistake : first, on the part 
 of Germany, which, as magnanimous conqueror, should 
 have proposed peace, thus conquering in character as in 
 arms ; and, secondly, on the part of the Eepublic, which 
 should have declined to wage a war of Imperialism, 
 against which the Eepublican leaders had so earnestly 
 protested. With the capitulation of the Emperor the 
 dynastic question was closed. There was no longer 
 pretension or pretext, nor was there occasion for war. 
 The two parties should have come to an understanding. 
 Why continue this terrible homicidal, fratricidal, suici- 
 dal combat, fraught with mutual death and sacrifice ? 
 Why march on Paris ? Why beleaguer Paris ? Why 
 bombard Paris ? To what end ? If for the humilia- 
 tion of France, then must it be condemned. 
 
 THREE ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS OF PEACE. 
 
 In arriving at terms of peace, there are at least three 
 conditions which cannot be overlooked in the interest of 
 civilization, and that the peace may be such in reality 
 as in name, and not an armistice only, — three postu- 
 lates which stand above all question, and dominate this 
 debate, so that any essential departure from them must 
 end in wretched failure. 
 
 The first is the natural requirement of Germany, that 
 there shall be completest guaranty against future aggres- 
 sion, constituting what is so well known among us as 
 
INDEMNITY OF GERMANY. 283 
 
 " Security for the Future." Count Bismarck, witli an 
 exaggeration hardly pardonable, alleges more than 
 twenty invasions of Germany by France, and declares 
 that these must be stopped forever.^ Many or few, 
 they must be stopped forever. The second condition to 
 be regarded is the natural I'equirement of France, that 
 the guaranty, while sufficient, shall be such as not 
 to wound needlessly the sentiments of the French 
 people, or to offend any principle of public law. It is 
 difficult to question these two postulates, at least in the 
 abstract. Only when we come to the application is 
 there opportunity for difference. The third postulate, 
 demanded alike by justice and humanity, is the estab- 
 lishment of some rule or precedent by which the recur- 
 rence of such a barbarous duel sliall be prevented. It 
 wiU not be enough to obtain a guaranty for Germany; 
 there must be a guaranty for Civilization itself 
 
 On careful inquiry, it will be seen that all these can 
 be accomplished in one way only, which I will describe, 
 when I have first shown what is now put forward and 
 discussed as the claim of Germany, under two different 
 heads. Indemnity and Guaranty. 
 
 INDEMNITY OF GERMANY. 
 
 I HAVE already spoken of Guaranty as an essential 
 condition. Indemnity is not essential. At the close 
 of our war with Slavery we said nothing of indemnity. 
 For the life of the citizen there could be no indemnity ; 
 nor was it practicable even for the treasure sacrificed. 
 Security for the Future was all that our nation required, 
 
 1 Circular of September 16, 1870 : Foreign Relations of the United 
 States, — Executive Documents, 41st Cong. 3d Sess., H. of R., Vol. I. 
 No. 1, Parti, pp. 212-13. 
 
284 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEANCE AND GEEMANY. 
 
 and this was found in provisions of Law and Constitu- 
 tion establishing Equal Eights. From various intima- 
 tions it is evident that Germany will not be content 
 without indemnity in money on a large scale ; and it 
 is also evident that France, the aggressor, cannot, when 
 conquered, deny liability to a, certain extent. The ques- 
 tion will be on the amount. Already German calcula- 
 tors begin to array their unrelenting figures. One of 
 these insists that the indemnity shall not only cover 
 outlay for the German Army, — pensions of widows 
 and invalids, — maintenance and support of French 
 wounded and prisoners, ■ — compensation to Germans 
 expelled from France, — also damage suffered by the 
 territory to be annexed, especially Strasbourg ; but if is 
 also to cover indirect damages, large in amount, — as, 
 loss to the nation from change of productive laborers 
 into soldiers, — loss from killing and disabling so many 
 laborers, — and, generally, loss from suspension of trade 
 and manufactures, depreciation of national property, 
 and diminution of the public revenues : — all of which, 
 according to a recent estimate, reach the fearful sum- 
 total of 4,935,000,000 francs, or nearly one thousand 
 million dollars. Of this sum, 1,255,000,000 francs are 
 on account of the Army, 1,230,000,000 for direct dam- 
 age, 2,250,000,000 for indirect damage, and 200,000,000 
 for damage to the reconquered provinces. StiU further, 
 the Berlin Chamber of Commerce insists on indemnity 
 not only for actual loss of ships and cargoes from the 
 blockade, but also for damages on account of detention. 
 Much of this many-headed account, which I introduce 
 in order to open the case in its extent, will be opposed 
 by France, as fabulous, consequential, and remote. The 
 practical question will be. Can one nation do wrong to 
 
GUARANTY OF DISMEMBERMENT. 285 
 
 another without paying for the damage, whatever it 
 may be, direct or indirect, — always provided it be 
 susceptible of estimate ? Here I content myself with 
 the remark, that, while in the settlement of interna- 
 tional differences there is no place for technicality, 
 there is always room for moderation. 
 
 GUARANTY OF DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 Vast as may be the claim of indemnity, it opens 
 no question so calculated to touch the sensibilities of 
 France as the claim of guaranty already announced by 
 Germany. On this head we are not left to conjecture. 
 From her first victory we have been assured that Ger- 
 many would claim Alsace and German Lorraine, with 
 their famous strongholds ; and now we have the state- 
 ment of Count Bismarck, in a diplomatic circular, that 
 he expects to remove the German frontier further 
 west, — meaning to the Vosges Mountains, if not to 
 the Moselle also, — and to convert the fortresses into 
 what he calls "defensive strongholds of Germany."^ 
 Then, with larger view, he declares, that, " in rendering 
 it more difficult for France, from whom all European 
 troubles have so long proceeded, to assume the offen- 
 sive, we likewise promote the common interest of Eu- 
 rope, which demands the preservation of peace." Here 
 is just recognition of peace as the common interest of 
 Europe, to be assured by disabling France. How shall 
 this be done ? The German Minister sees nothing but 
 dismemberment, consecrated by a Treaty of Peace. 
 With diplomatic shears he would cut off a portion of 
 French territory, and, taking from it the name of France, 
 
 1 Circular of September 16, 1870, — uU supra, p. 49, Note 1. 
 
286 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 stamp upon it the trade-mark of Germany. Two of its 
 richest and most precious provinces, for some two hun- 
 dred years constituent parts of the great nation, with 
 that ancient cathedral city, the pride of the Ehine, long 
 years ago fortified by Vauban as " the strongest barrier 
 of France," i are to be severed, and with them a large 
 and industrious population, which, while preserving the 
 German language, have so far blended with France as 
 to become Frenchmen. This is the German proposition, 
 which I call the Guaranty of Dismemberment. 
 
 One argument for this proposition is brushed aside 
 easily. Had the fortune of war been adverse to Ger- 
 many, it is said, peace would have been dictated at Ber- 
 lin, perhaps at Konigsberg, and France would have 
 carried her frontier eastward to the Ehine, dismember- 
 ing Germany. Such, I doubt not, would have been the 
 attempt. The conception is entirely worthy of that 
 Imperial levity with which the war began. But the 
 madcap menace of the French Empire cannot be the 
 measure of German justice. It is for Germany to show, 
 that, notwithstanding this wildness, she knows how to 
 be just. Dismemberment on this account would be 
 only another form of retaliation; but retaliation is 
 barbarous. 
 
 To the argument, that these provinces, with their 
 strongholds, are needed for the defence of Germany, 
 there is the obvious reply, that, if cut off from France 
 contrary to the wishes of the local population, and 
 with the French people in chronic irritation on this 
 account, they will be places of weakness rather than 
 strength, strongholds of disaffection rather than defence, 
 
 1 Voltaire, Siicle de Louis XIV., Ch. XIV.: CEuvres, (^dit. 1784-89.) 
 Tom. XX. p. 403. 
 
GUARANTY OF DISMEMBERMENT. 287 
 
 to be held always at the cannon's mouth. Does Ger- 
 many seek lasting peace ? Not in this way can it be 
 had. A painful exaction, enforced by triumphant arms, 
 must create a sentiment of hostility in France, sup- 
 pressed for a season, but ready at a propitious moment 
 to break forth in violence; so that between the two 
 conterminous nations there will be nothing better than 
 a peace where each sleeps on its arms, — which is but 
 an Armed Peace. Such for weary years has been the 
 condition of nations. Is Germany determined to pro- 
 long the awful curse ? Will her most enlightened 
 people, with poetry, music, literature, philosophy, sci- 
 ence, and religion as constant ministers, to whom has 
 been opened in rarest degree the whole book of knowl- 
 edge, persevere in a brutal policy belonging to another 
 age, and utterly alien to that superior civilization which 
 is so truly theirs ? 
 
 There is another consideration, not only of justice, 
 but of public law, which cannot be overcome. The 
 people of these provinces are unwilling to be separat- 
 ed from France. This is enough. France cannot sell or 
 transfer them against their consent. Consult the great 
 masters, and you will find their concurring authority. 
 Grotius, from whom on such a question there can be no 
 appeal, adjudges: "In the alienation of a part of the 
 sovereignty it is required that the part which is to be 
 alienated consent to the act." According to him, it must 
 not be supposed " that the body should have the right 
 of cutting off parts from itself and giving them into the 
 authority of another." ^ Of the same opinion is Pufen- 
 dorf, declaring : " The sovereign who attempts to trans- 
 fer his kingdom to another by his sole authority does 
 
 1 De Jttre Belli et Pacis, tr. Whewell, Lib. II. Cap. 6, § i. 
 
288 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEANCE AND GERMAN Y". 
 
 an act in itself null and void, and not binding on his 
 subjects. To make such a conveyance valid, the con- 
 sent of the people is required, as vs^ell as of the prince." ^ 
 Vattel crowns this testimony, when he adds, that a 
 province or city, "abandoned and dismembered from 
 the State, is not obliged to receive the new master 
 proposed to be given it." ^ Before such texts, stronger 
 than a fortress, the soldiers of Germany must halt. 
 
 Nor can it be forgotten how inconsistent is the guar- 
 anty of Dismemberment with that heroic passion for na- 
 tional unity which is the glory of Germany. National 
 unity is not less the right of France than of Germany ; 
 and these provinces, though in former centuries German, 
 and still preserving the German speech, belong to the 
 existing unity of France, — unless, according to the pop- 
 ular song, the German's Fatherland extends 
 
 "Far as the GermaD accent rings "; 
 
 and then the conqueror must insist on Switzerland ; and 
 why not cross the Atlantic, to dictate laws in Pennsyl- 
 vania and Chicago ? But this same song has a better 
 verse, calling that the German's Fatherland 
 
 " Where in the heart love warmly lies." 
 
 But in these coveted provinces it is the love for France, 
 and not for Germany, which prevails. 
 
 GUARANTY OF DISARMAMENT. 
 
 The Guaranty of Dismemberment, when brought to 
 the touchstone of the three essential conditions, is found 
 wanting. Dismissing it as unsatisfactory, I come to 
 
 1 De Jure Natura? et Gentium, Lib. VIII. Cap. 5, § 9. 
 a Le Droit des Gens, Liv. T. Ch. 21, § 264. 
 
GUARANTY OF DISARMAMENT. 289 
 
 that other guaranty where these conditions are all ful- 
 filled, and we find security for Germany without offence 
 to the just sentiments of France, and also a new safe- 
 guard to civilization. Against the Guaranty of Dismem- 
 berment I oppose the Guaranty of Disarmament. By 
 Disarmament I mean the razing of the French fortifica- 
 tions and the abolition of the standing army, except 
 that minimum of force required for purposes of police. 
 How completely this satisfies the conditions already 
 named is obvious. For Germany there would be on the 
 side of France absolute repose, so that Count Bismarck 
 need not fear another invasion, — while France, saved 
 from intolerable humiliation, would herself be free to 
 profit by the new civilization. 
 
 ISTor is this guaranty otherwise than practical in every 
 respect, and the more it is examined the more will its 
 inestimable advantage be apparent. 
 
 1. There is, first, its most 'obvious economy, which is 
 so glaring, that, according to a familiar French expres- 
 sion, " it leaps into the eyes." Undertaking even briefly 
 to set it forth, I seem to follow the proverb and " show 
 the sun with a lantern." According to the " Almanach 
 de Gotha," the appropriations for the army of France, 
 during the year of peace before the war, were 588,852, 
 970 francs,^ — or about one hundred and seventeen 
 millions of dollars. Give up the Standing Army and 
 this considerable sum disappears from the annual bud- 
 get. But this retrenchment represents only partially 
 the prodigious economy. Beyond the annual outlay is 
 the loss to the nation by the change of producers into 
 non-producers. Admitting that in France the average 
 annual production of a soldier usefully employed would 
 
 1 Almanach de Gotha, 1870, p. 599. 
 
290 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 be only fifty dollars, and multiplying this small allow- 
 ance by the numbers of the Standing Army, you have 
 another amount to be piled upon the military appropri- 
 ations. Is it too much to expect that this surpassing 
 waste shall be stopped ? Must the extravagance born 
 of war, and nursed by long tradition, continue to drain 
 the resources of the land ? Where is reason ? Where 
 humanity ? A decree abolishing the Standing Army 
 would be better for the French people, and more pro- 
 ductive, than the richest gold-mine discovered in every 
 department of France. Nor can imagination picture 
 the fruitful result. I speak now only in the light of 
 economy. Eelieved from intolerable burden, industry 
 would lift itself to unimagined labors, and society be 
 quickened anew. 
 
 2. Beyond this economy, which need not be argued, 
 is the positive advantage, if not necessity, of such change 
 for France. I do not speak on general grounds applica- 
 ble to all nations, but on grounds peculiar to France at 
 the present moment. Emerging from a most destructive 
 war, she will be subjected to enormous and unprece- 
 dented contributions of every kind. After satisfying 
 Germany, she will find other obligations at home, — 
 some pressing directly upon the nation, and others upon 
 individuals. Beyond the outstanding pay of soldiers, 
 requisitions for supplies, pensions for the wounded and 
 the families of the dead, and other extraordinary lia- 
 bilities accumulating as never before in the same time, 
 there will be the duty of renewing that internal pros- 
 perity which has received such a shock ; and here the 
 work of restoration will be costly, whether to the nation 
 or the individual. Ee venue must be regained, roads 
 and bridges repaired, markets supplied; nor can we 
 
GUARANTY OF DISARMAMENT. 291 
 
 omit the large and multitudinous losses from ravage of 
 fields, seizure of stock, suspension of business, stoppage 
 of manufactures, interference with agriculture, and the 
 whole terrible drain of war by which the people are 
 impoverished and disabled. If to the necessary appro- 
 priation and expenditure for aU these things is super- 
 added the annual tax of a Standing Army, and that 
 other draft from the change of producers into non- 
 producers, plainly here is a supplementary burden of 
 crushing weight. Talk of the last feather breaking 
 the back of the camel, — but never was camel loaded 
 down as France. 
 
 3. Beyond even these considerations of economy and 
 advantage I put the transcendent, priceless benefit of 
 Disarmament in the assurance of peace. Disarmament 
 substitutes the constable for the soldier, and reduces the 
 Standing Army to a police. The argument assumes, 
 first, the Heedlessness of a Standing Army, and, sec- 
 ondly, its evil influence. Both of these points were 
 touched at an early day by the wise Chancellor of Eng- 
 land, Sir Thomas More, when, in his practical and per- 
 sonal Introduction to " Utopia," he alludes to what he 
 calls the " bad custom " of keeping many servants, and 
 then says : " In France there is yet a more pestiferous 
 sort of people ; for the whole country is full of soldiers, 
 that are still kept up in time of peace, — if such a state 
 of a nation can be called a peace." Then, proceeding 
 with his judgment, the Chancellor holds up what he 
 calls those " pretended statesmen " whose maxim is that 
 "it is necessary for the public safety to have a good 
 body of veteran soldiers ever in readiness." And after 
 saying that these pretended statesmen " sometimes seek 
 occasion for making war, that they may train up their 
 
292 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 soldiers in the art of cutting throats," he adds, in words 
 soon to be tested, " But France has learned, to its cost, 
 how dangerous it is to feed such beasts." ^ It will be 
 well, if France has learned this important lesson. The 
 time has come to practise it. 
 
 All history is a vain word, and all experience is at 
 fault, if large War Preparations, of which the Standing 
 Army is the type, have not been constant provocatives 
 of war. Pretended protectors against war, they have 
 been real instigators to war. They have excited the 
 evil against which they were to guard. The habit of 
 wearing arms in private life exercised a kindred influ- 
 ence. So long as this habit continued, society was 
 darkened by personal combat, street-fight, duel, and as- 
 sassination. The Standing Army is to the nation what 
 the sword was to the modern gentleman, the stiletto to 
 the Italian, the knife to the Spaniard, the pistol to our 
 slave-master, • — furnishing, like these, the means of 
 death ; and its possessor is not slow to use it. In stat- 
 ing the operation of this system we are not left to in- 
 ference. As France, according to Sir Thomas More, 
 shows "how dangerous it is to feed such beasts," so 
 does Prussia, in ever-memorable instance, which speaks 
 now with more than ordinary authority, show precisely 
 how the Standing Army may become the incentive to 
 war. Frederick, the warrior king, is our witness. With 
 honesty or impudence beyond parallel, he did not hesi- 
 tate to record in his Memoirs, among the reasons for his 
 war upon Maria Theresa, that, on coming to the throne, 
 he found himself with "troops always ready to act." 
 Voltaire, when called to revise the royal memoirs, 
 
 1- Utopia, tr. Burnet, (London, 1845,) Book I. pp. 29, 30. 
 
GUAEANTY OF DISARMAMENT. 293 
 
 erased this confession, but preserved a copy;^ so that 
 by his literary activity we have this kingly authority 
 for the mischief from a Standing Army. How com- 
 plete a weapon was that army may be learned from 
 Lafayette, who, in a letter to Washington, in 1786, after 
 a visit to the King, described it thus : — 
 
 " Nothing can be compared to the beauty of the troops, to 
 the discipline which reigns in all their ranks, to the sim- 
 plicity of their movements, to the uniformity of their regi- 
 ments All the situations which can be supposed in 
 
 war, all the movements which these must necessitate, have 
 been by constant habit so inculcated in their heads, that aU 
 these operations are done almost mechanically."^ 
 
 Nothing better has been devised since the Macedo- 
 nian phalanx or the Eoman legion. With such a weap- 
 on ready to his hands, the King struck Maria Theresa. 
 And think you that the present duel between France 
 and Germany could have been waged, had not both na- 
 tions found themselves, like Frederick of Prussia, with 
 "troops always ready to act"? It was the possession of 
 these troops which made the two parties rush so swiftly 
 to the combat. Is not the lesson perfect ? Already 
 individuals have disarmed. Civilization requires that 
 nations shall do likewise. 
 
 Thus is Disarmament enforced on three several 
 grounds : first, economy ; secondly, positive advantage, 
 if not necessity, for France ; and, thirdly, assurance of 
 peace. No other guaranty promises so much. Does 
 any other guaranty promise anything beyond the acci- 
 
 1 Brougham, Lives of Men of Letters, (London and Glasgow, 1856,) p. 59, 
 — Voltaire. See also Voltaire, Me-nwires pour sermr d la Vie de, ecHtspar 
 lui-mime, (^dit. 1784-89,) Tom. LXX. p. 279; also Frdddric II., Histoire 
 de num Temps, CEuvres Postl)iimes, (Berlin, 1789,) Tom. I. Part. I. p. 78. 
 
 2 Memoires, Tom. II. p. 133. 
 
294 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 dent of force ? Nor would France be alone. Dismiss- 
 ing to the arts of peace the large army victorious over 
 Slavery, our Republic has shown how disarmament can 
 be accomplished. The example of France, so entirely 
 reasonable, so proiitable, so pacific, and so harmonious 
 with ours, would spread. Conquering Germany could 
 not resist its influence. Nations are taught by example 
 more than by precept, and either is better than force. 
 Other nations would follow ; nor would Eussia, elevated 
 by her great act of Enfranchisement, fail to seize her 
 sublime opportunity. Popular rights, which are strong- 
 est always in assured peace, would have new triumphs. 
 Instead of Trial by Battle for the decision of differences 
 between nations, there would be peaceful substitutes, as 
 Arbitration, or, it may be, a Congress of Nations, and 
 the United States of Europe would appear above the 
 subsiding waters. The old juggle of Balance of Power, 
 which has rested like a nightmare on Europe, would 
 disappear, like that other less bloody fiction of Balance 
 of Trade, and nations, like individuals, would all be 
 equal before the law. Here our own country furnishes 
 an illustration. So long as slavery prevailed among us, 
 there was an attempt to preserve what was designated 
 balance of power between the North and South, pivot- 
 ing on Slavery, — just as in Europe there has been an 
 attempt to preserve balance of power among nations 
 pivoting on War. Too tardily is it seen that this fa- 
 mous balance, which has played such a part at home 
 and abroad, is but an artificial contrivance instituted by 
 power, which must give place to a simple accord derived 
 from the natural condition of things. Why should not 
 the harmony which has begun at home be extended 
 abroad ? Practicable and beneficent here, it must be 
 
KING WILLIAM AND COUNT BISMARCK. 295 
 
 the same there. Then would nations exist without per- 
 petual and reciprocal watchfulness. But the first step 
 is to discard the wasteful, oppressive, and pernicious 
 provocative to war, which is yet maintained at such ter- 
 rible cost. To-day this glorious advance is presented to 
 France and Germany. 
 
 KING "WILLIAM AND COUNT BISMARCK. 
 
 Two personages at this moment hold in their hands 
 the great question teeming with a new civilization. 
 Honest and determined, both are patriotic rather than 
 cosmopolitan or Christian, believing in Prussia rather 
 than Humanity. And the patriotism so strong in each 
 keeps still the early tinge of iron. I refer to King 
 William and his Prime-Minister, Count Bismarck. 
 
 More than any other European sovereign, William 
 of Prussia possesses the infatuation of "divine right." 
 He believes that he was appointed by God to be King 
 — differing here from Louis Napoleon, who in a spirit 
 of compromise entitled himself Emperor " by the grace 
 of God and the national will." This infatuation was 
 illustrated at his coronation in ancient Konigsberg, — 
 first home of Prussian royalty, and better famous as 
 birthplace and lifelong home of Immanuel Kant, — 
 when the King enacted a scene of melodrama which 
 might be transferred from the church to the theatre. 
 No other person was allowed to place the crown on his 
 royal head. Lifting it from the altar, where it rested, 
 he placed it on his head himself, in sign that he held 
 it from Heaven and not from man, and next placed an- 
 other on the head of the Queen, in sign that her dignity 
 was derived from him. Then, turning round, he grasped 
 
296 THE DUEL BETWEEN FEANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 the sword of state, in testimony of readiness to defend 
 the nation. Since the Battle of Sadowa, when the Aus- 
 trian Empire was so suddenly shattered, he has believed 
 himself providential sword-bearer of Germany, destined, 
 perhaps, to revive the old glories of Barbarossa. His 
 habits are soldierly, and, notwithstanding his seventy- 
 . three winters, he continues to find pleasure in wearing 
 the spiked helmet of the Prussian camp. Eepublicans 
 smile when he speaks of " my army," " my allies," and 
 " my people " ; but this egotism is the natural expres- 
 sion of the monarchical character, especially where the 
 monarch believes that he holds by " divine right." His 
 public conduct is in harmony with these conditions. 
 He is a Protestant, and rules the land of Luther, but 
 he is no friend to modern Reform. The venerable sys- 
 tem of war and prerogative is part of his inheritance 
 handed down from fighting despots, and he evidently 
 believes in it. 
 
 His Minister, Count Bismarck, is the partisan of " di- 
 vine right," and, like the King, regards with satisfaction 
 that hierarchical feudalism from which they are both 
 derived. He is noble, and believes in nobility. He 
 believes also in force, as if he had the blood of the god 
 Thor. He believes in war, and does not hesitate to 
 throw its " iron dice," insisting upon the rigors of the 
 game. As the German question began to lower, his 
 policy was most persistent. "Not by speeches and 
 votes of the majority," he said in 1862, "are the great 
 questions of the time decided, — that was the error of 
 1848 and 1849, — hut hy iron and blood."''- Thus expli- 
 
 1 " Nicht durch Reden und MajoritatstescUiisse werden die grossen Fra- 
 gen der Zeit entsdueden, — das ist der Fehler von 1848 und 1849 gewesen, — 
 sondern durch Eisen und Blut." — Aeusserungen in der Budgetkommission, 
 September, 1862. 
 
KING WILLIAM AND COUNT BISMARCK. 297 
 
 cit was he. Having a policy, he became its representa- 
 tive, and very soon thereafter controlled the counsels of 
 his sovereign, coming swiftly before the world ; and yet 
 his elevation was tardy. Born in 1815, he did not en- 
 ter upon diplomacy until 1851, when thirty-six years of 
 age, and only in 1862 became Prussian Minister at 
 Paris, whence he was soon transferred to the Cabinet 
 at Berlin as Prime-Minister. Down to that time he 
 was little known. His name is . not found in any edi- 
 tion of the bulky French Dictionary of Contempora- 
 ries,^ not even its " Additions and Eectifications," until 
 the Supplement of 1863. But from this time he drew 
 so large a share of public attention that the contempo- 
 rary press of the world became the dictionary where his 
 name was always found. Nobody doubts his intellec- 
 tual resources, his courage, or strength of will ; but it is 
 felt that he is naturally hard, and little affected by hu- 
 man sympathy. Therefore is he an excellent war min- 
 ister. It remains to be seen if he will do as much for 
 peace. His one idea has been the unity of Germany 
 under the primacy of Prussia ; and here he encountered 
 Austria, as he now encounters France. But in that 
 larger unity where nations will be conjoined in har- 
 mony he can do less, so long at least as he continues 
 a fanatic for kings and a cynic towards popular insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Such is the King, and such his Minister. I have de- 
 scribed them that you may see how little help the great 
 ideas already germinating from bloody fields will receive 
 from them. In this respect they are as one. 
 
 ^ Vapereau, Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains, 
 
298 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 TWO INFLUENCES VERSUS WAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Beyond the most persuasive influence of civilization, 
 pleading, as never before, with voice of reason and af- 
 fection, that the universal tyrant and master-evil of 
 Christendom, the War System, may cease, and the 
 means now absorbed in its support be employed for the 
 benefit of the Human Family, there are two special in- 
 fluences which cannot be without weight at this time. 
 The first is German authority in the writings of philos- 
 ophers, by whom Germany rules in thought; and the 
 second is the uprising of the working-men: both 
 against war as acknowledged arbiter between nations, 
 and insisting upon peaceful substitutes. 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE GERMAN MIND. 
 
 More than any other nation Germany has suffered 
 from war. Without that fatal gift of beauty, " a dowry 
 fraught with never-ending pain," which tempted the 
 foreigner to Italy, her lot has been hardly less wretch- 
 ed; but Germany has differed from Italy in the suc- 
 cessful bravery with which she repelled the invader. 
 Tacitus says of her people, that, " surrounded by numer- 
 ous and very powerful nations, they are safe, not by 
 obsequiousness, but by battles and braving danger " ; ^ 
 and this same character, thus epigrammatically pre- 
 sented, has continued ever since. Yet this was not 
 without that painful experience which teaches what 
 Art has so often attempted to picture and Eloquence to 
 describe, "The Miseries of War." Again in that same 
 
 1 "Plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus ciiicti, non per obsequium, sed 
 prceliis et periclitando tuti sunt." — Germania, Cap. XL. 
 
AUTHOEITY OF THE GERMAN MIND. 299 
 
 fearless spirit has Germany driven back the invader, 
 while War is seen anew in its atrocious works. But it 
 was not merely the Miseries of War which Germans 
 regarded. The German mind is pliilosophical and sci- 
 entific, and it early saw the irrational character of the 
 War System. It is well known that Henry the Fourth 
 of France conceived the idea of Harmony among Na- 
 tions without War; and his plan was taken up and elab- 
 orated in numerous writings by the good Abbe de Saint- 
 Pierre, so that he made it his own. Eousseau, in his 
 treatise on the subject,^ popularized Saint-Pierre. But 
 it is to Germany that we must look for the most com- 
 plete and practical development of this beautiful idea. 
 If French in origin, it is German now in authority. 
 
 The greatest minds in Germany have dealt with this 
 problem, and given to its solution the exactness of sci- 
 ence. No greater have been applied to any question. 
 Foremost in this list, in time and in fame, is Leibnitz, 
 that marvel of human intelligence, second, perhaps, to 
 none in history, who, on reading the " Project of Perpet- 
 ual Peace" by the Abb^ de Saint-Pierre, pronounced 
 this judgment : " I have read it with attention, and am 
 persuaded that such a project is on the whole feasible, 
 and that its execution would be one of the most useful 
 things in the world." ^ Thus did Leibnitz affirm its 
 feasibility and its immense usefulness. Other minds 
 followed, in no apparent concert, but in unison. I may 
 be pardoned, if, without being too bibliographical, I 
 name some of these witnesses. 
 
 1 J. J. Eousseau, Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de M. I'Ablj^ 
 de Saint-Pierre ; avec Lettre a M, de Bastide, et Jugement sur la Paix Per- 
 petuelle: CEuvres, (edit. 1788-93,) Tom. VII. pp. 339-418. 
 
 2 Otservations sur le Projet d'une Paix Perpetuelle de M. I'Abb^ de 
 Saint-Pierre: Opera, ed. Dutens, (Genevae, 1768,) Tom. V. p. 56. 
 
300 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 At Gottingen, reDOwned for its University, the ques- 
 tion was opened, at the close of the Seven Years' War 
 in 1763, in a work by Totze, whose character appears in 
 its title, " Permanent and Universal Peace in Europe, 
 according to the Plan of Henry IV." ^ At Leipsic, also 
 the seat of a University, the subject was presented in 
 1767 by Lilienfeld, in a treatise of much completeness, 
 under the name of "New Constitution for States," ^ 
 where, after exposing the wretched chances of the bat- 
 tle-field and the expense of armaments in time of peace, 
 the author urges submission to Arbitrators, unless a Su- 
 prenae Tribunal is established to administer Interna- 
 tional Law and to judge between nations. In 1804 ap- 
 peared another work, of singular clearness and force, by 
 Karl Schwab, entitled "Of Unavoidable Injustice," ^ 
 where the author describes what he calls the Universal 
 State, in which nations will be to each other as citizens 
 in the Municipal State. He is not so visionary as to 
 imagine that justice will always be inviolate between 
 nations in the Universal State, for it is not always so 
 between citizens in the Municipal State ; but he con- 
 fidently looks to the establishment between nations of 
 the rules which now subsist between citizens, whose dif- 
 ferences are settled peaceably by judicial tribunals. 
 
 These works, justly important for the light they shed, 
 and as expressions of a growing sentiment, are eclipsed 
 in the contributions of the great teacher, Immanuel 
 Kant, who, after his fame in philosophy was established, 
 so that his works were discussed and expounded not 
 only throughout Germany, but in other lands, in 1795 
 
 1 Der ewige und allgemehie Friede in Europa, nach dem Entwurf Hein- 
 richs IV. 
 
 2 Neues Staatsgebaude. 
 
 8 Ueber das unvermeidliche Uureoht. 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE GERMAN MIND. 301 
 
 gave to the world a treatise entitled "Ou Perpetual 
 Peace," ^ which was promptly translated into French, 
 Danish, and Dutch. Two other works by him attest 
 his interest in the subject, the first entitled " Idea for 
 a General History in a Cosmopolitan View," ^ and the 
 other, " Metaphysical Elements of Jurisprudence." ^ 
 His grasp was complete. A treaty of peace which 
 tacitly acknowledges the right to wage war, as all trea- 
 ties now do, according to Kant is nothing more than a 
 truce. An individual war may be ended, but not the 
 state of war ; so that, even after cessation of hostilities, 
 there will be constant fear of their renewal, while the 
 armaments known as Peace Establishments will tend to 
 provoke them. All this should be changed, and nations 
 should form one comprehensive Federation, which, re- 
 ceiving other nations within its fold, will at last em- 
 brace the civilized world ; and such, in the judgment of 
 Kant, was the irresistible tendency of nations. To a 
 French poet we are indebted for the most suggestive 
 term, " United States of Europe " ; * but this is noth- 
 ing but the Federation of the illustrious German phi- 
 losopher. Nor was Kant alone among his great contem- 
 poraries. That other philosopher, Fichte, whose name 
 at the time was second only to that of Kant, in his 
 "Groundwork of the Law of Nature," •' published in 
 1796, also urges a Federation of Nations, with an es- 
 tablished tribunal to which all should submit. Much 
 better for civilization, had the King at Konigsberg, in- 
 
 1 Zum ewlgen Frieden. 
 
 "^ Idee ZTi einer allgemeinen Gescliiclite in weltbiirgerlicher Absicht. 
 
 2 Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der Rechtslehre. 
 
 * Victor Hugo, Discotirs d'Ouverture du Congris de la Paix a Paris, 21 
 Aoflt 1849 : Treize Discours, (Paris, 1851,) p. 19. 
 5 Gruudlage des Naturrechts. 
 
302 THE DUEL BETWEEN FKANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 stead of grasping the ^word, hearkened to the voice of 
 Kant, renewed by Fichte. 
 
 With these German oracles in its support, the cause 
 cannot be put aside. Even in the midst of war, Phi- 
 losopliy will be heard, especially when she speaks words 
 of concurring authority that touch a chord in every 
 heart. Leibnitz, Kant, and Fichte, a mighty triumvi- 
 rate of intelligence, unite in testimony. As Germany, 
 beyond any other nation, has given to the idea of Or- 
 ganized Peace the warrant of philosophy, it only re- 
 mains now that she should insist upon its practical ap- 
 plication. There should be no delay. Long enough has 
 mankind waited while the river of blood flowed on. 
 
 UPRISING OF WORKING-MEN. 
 
 The working-men of Europe, not excepting Germany, 
 respond to the mandate of Philosophy, and insist that 
 the War System shall be abolished. At public meet- 
 ings, in formal resolutions and addresses, they have de- 
 clared war against War, and they will not be silenced. 
 This is not the first time that working-men have made 
 themselves heard for international justice. I cannot 
 forget, that, while Slavery was waging war against our 
 nation, the working-men of Belgium in public meeting 
 protested against that precocious Proclamation of Bel- 
 ligerent Eights by which the British Government gave 
 such impulse to the Rebellion ; and now, in the same 
 spirit, and for the sake of true peace, they declare them- 
 selves against that War System by which the peace of 
 nations is placed in such constant jeopardy. They are 
 right ; for nobody suffers in war as the working-man, 
 whether in property or in person. For him war is a 
 
UPEISING OF WOEKING-MEN. 303 
 
 ravening monster, devouring his substance, and chang- 
 ing him from citizen to military serf. As victim of the 
 War System he is entitled to be heard. 
 
 The working-men of different countries have been or- 
 ganizing in societies, of which it is difficult at present 
 to tell the number and extent. It is known that these 
 societies exist in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and 
 England, as well as in our own country, and that they 
 have in some measure an international character. In 
 France, before the war, there were 433,785 men in the 
 organization, and in Germany 150,000.^ Yet this is but 
 the beginning. 
 
 At the menace of the present war, all these societies 
 were roused. The society known as the International 
 Working-Men's Association, by their General Council, 
 issued an address, dated at London, protesting against it 
 as a war of dynasties, denouncing Louis Napoleon as an 
 enemy of the laboring classes, and declaring " the war- 
 plot of July, 1870, but an amended edition of the couf 
 d'4tat of December, 1851." The address then testifies 
 generally against war, saying, — 
 
 " They feel deeply convinced, that, whatever turn the im- 
 pending horrid war may take, the alliance of the working class- 
 es of all countries will ultimately hill war." '^ 
 
 At the same time the Paris branch of the Interna- 
 tional Association put forth a manifesto addressed " To 
 the Working-Men of all Countries," from which I take 
 these passages : — 
 
 1 La Solidarity, 25 Jnin 1870, — as cited by Testu, L' Internationale, 
 (7eme Mit.,)p. 275. 
 
 * The General Council of the International Working-Meu's Association 
 on the War, (London, July 23, 1870,) p. iv. 
 
304 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 " Once more, under the pretext of European equilibrium, 
 of national honor, political ambitions menace the peace of the 
 world. 
 
 " French, German, Spanish working-men ! let our voices 
 unite in a cry of reprohation against war ! 
 
 " War for a question of preponderance, or of dynasty, can, 
 in the eyes of working-men, be nothing but a criminal absur- 
 dity. 
 
 " In response to the warlike acclamations of those who ex- 
 onerate themselves from the impost of blood, or who find in 
 public misfortunes a source of new speculations, we protest, 
 — we who wish for peace, work, and liberty. 
 
 " Brothers of Germany ! . . . . our divisions would only 
 bring about the complete triumph of despotism on both sides of- 
 the Rhine. 
 
 " Working-men of all countries ! whatever may be the re- 
 sult of our common efforts, we, members of the International 
 Association of Working-Men, who know no frontiers, we send 
 you, as a pledge of indissoluble solidarity, the good wishes 
 and the salutations of the working-men of France."^ 
 
 To this appeal, so full of truth, touching to the quick 
 the pretence of balance of power aud questions of dy- 
 nasty as excuses for war, and then rising to " a cry of 
 reprobation against war," the Berlin branch of the In- 
 ternational Association replied : — - 
 
 "We join with heart and hand in your protestation 
 
 Solemnly we promise you that neither the noise of drums nor 
 the thunder of cannon, neither victory nor defeat, shall turn 
 us aside from our work for the union of the proletaries of 
 all countries." ^ 
 
 1 Testu, L' Internationale, pp. 279-80. Tlie General Council of the In- 
 ternational Working-Men's Associiition on the War, p. ii. 
 8 Testu, pp. 284-85. The General Council, etc., p. iii. 
 
UPRISING OF WORKING-MEN. \ 305 
 
 Then came a meeting of delegates at Chemnitz, in 
 Saxony, representing fifty thousand Saxon working-men, 
 which put forth the following hardy words : — 
 
 " We are happy to grasp the fraternal hand stretched out 
 
 to us by the working-men of France Mindful of the 
 
 watchword of the International Working-Men's Association, 
 Proletarians of all countries, unite ! we shall never forget 
 that the working-men of aU countries are our friends, and 
 the despots of aU. countries our enemies." ^ 
 
 Next followed, at Brunswick, in Germany, on the 16th 
 of July, — the very day after the reading of the war doc- 
 ument at the French tribune, and the "light heart" of 
 the Prime-Minister, — a mass meeting of the working- 
 men there, which declared its full concurrence with the 
 manifesto of the Paris branch, spurned the idea of na- 
 tional antagonism to France, and wound up with these 
 solid words: — 
 
 "We are enemies of all wars, hut above all of dynastic 
 wars." " 
 
 The whole subject is presented with admirable power 
 in an address from the Workmen's Peace Committee to 
 the Working-Men of Great Britain and Ireland, duly 
 signed by their of&cers. Here are some of . its sen- 
 tences : — 
 
 "Without us war must cease; for without us standing 
 armies could not exist. It is out of our class chiefly that 
 they are formed." 
 
 " We would call upon and implore the peoples of France 
 and Germany, in order to enable their own rulers to realize 
 
 1 The General Council of the International Working-Men's Association 
 on the War, p. iii. 
 a Ibid. 
 
306 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 these their peace-loving professions, to insist upon the aboli- 
 tion of standing armies, as both the source and means of 
 war, nurseries of vice, and locust-consumers of the fruits of 
 useful industry." 
 
 "What we claim and demand — what -we would implore 
 the peoples of Europe to do, without regard to Courts, Cabi- 
 nets, or Dynasties — is to insist upon Arbitration as a substi- 
 tute for war, with peace and its blessings for them, for us, for 
 the whole civilized world." ^ 
 
 The working-men of England responded to this ap- 
 peal, in a crowded meeting at St. James's Hall, London, 
 where all the speakers were working-men and represen- 
 tatives of the various handicrafts, except the Chairman, 
 whose strong words found echo in the intense convic- 
 tions of the large assemblage : — 
 
 " One object of this meeting is to make the horror uni- 
 versally inspired by the enormous and cruel carnage of this 
 terrible war the groundwork for appealing to the working 
 classes and the people of all other European countries to join 
 in protesting against war altogether, [prolonged cheers,'] as the 
 shame of Christendom, and direst curse and scourge of the 
 human race. Let the will of the people sweep away war, 
 which cannot be waged without them. ['Hear/''] Away 
 with enormous standing armies, ['Hear ! '] the nurseries and 
 instruments of war, — nurseries, too, of vice, and crushing 
 burdens upon national wealth and prosperity ! Let there go 
 forth from the people of this and other lands one universal 
 and all-overpowering cry and demand for the blessings of 
 peace ! " ^ 
 
 At this meeting the Honorary Secretary of the Work- 
 men's Peace Committee, after announcing that the work- 
 
 1 Herald of Peace for 1870, September 1st, pp. 101-2. 
 
 2 Ibid., October 1st, p. 12,1. 
 
ABOLITION OF THE WAR SYSTEM. 307 
 
 ing-men of upwards of three hundred towns had given 
 their adhesion to the platform of the Committee, thus 
 showing a determination to abolish war altogether, moved 
 the following resolution, which was adopted : — 
 
 " That war, especially with the present many fearful contri- 
 vances for wholesale carnage and destruction, is repugnant to 
 every principle of reason, humanity, and religion ; and this 
 meeting earnestly invites all civilized and Christian peoples 
 to insist upon the abolition of standing armies, and the settle- 
 ment by arbitration of all international disputes." ^ 
 
 Thus clearly is the case stated by the Working-Men, 
 now beginning to be heard; and the testimony is rever- 
 berated from nation to nation. They cannot be silent 
 hereafter. I confidently look to them for important co- 
 operation in this great work of redemption. Could my 
 voice reach them now, wherever they may be, in that 
 honest toil which is the appointed lot of man, it would 
 be with words of cheer and encouragement. Let them 
 proceed until civilization is no longer darkened by war. 
 In this way will they become not only saviours to their 
 own households, but benefactors of the whole Human 
 Family. 
 
 ABOLITION OF THE "WAR SYSTEM. 
 
 Such is the statement, with its many proofs, by which 
 war is exhibited as the Duel of Nations, being the Trial 
 by Battle of the Dark Ages. You have seen how na- 
 tions, under existing International Law, to which all are 
 parties, refer their differences to this insensate arbitra- 
 ment, — and then how, in our day and before our own 
 eyes, two nations eminent in civilization have furnished 
 
 1 Herald of Peace for 1870, October 1st, p. 125. 
 
308 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 an instance of this incredible folly, waging together a 
 world-convulsing, soul-harrowing, and most barbarous 
 contest. All ask how long the direful duel will be con- 
 tinued. Better ask, How long will be continued that 
 War System by which such a duel is authorized and, 
 regulated among nations ? When will this legalised, 
 organized crime be abolished ? When at last will it be 
 confessed that the Law of Right is the same for nations 
 as for individuals, so that, if Trial by Battle be impious 
 for individuals, it is so for nations likewise ? Against it 
 are Eeason and Humanity, pleading as never before, — 
 Economy, asking for mighty help, — Peace, with softest 
 voice praying for safeguard, — and then the authority of 
 Philosophy, speaking by some of its greatest masters, — 
 all reinforced by the irrepressible, irresistible protest of 
 working-men in different nations. 
 
 Precedents exist for the abolition of this duel, so com- 
 pletely in point, that, according to the lawyer's phrase, 
 they " go on all fours " with the new case. Two of 
 these have been already mentioned : first, when, at the 
 Diet of Worms, in 1495, the Emperor Maximilian pro- 
 claimed a permanent peace throughout Germany, and 
 abolished the " liberty " of Private War ; and, secondly, 
 when, in 1815, the German Principalities stipulated 
 " under no pretext to make war upon one another, or 
 to pursue their differences by force of arms." ^ But 
 first in time, and perhaps in importance, was the great 
 Ordinance of St. Louis, King of France, promulgated at 
 a Parliament in 1260, where he says : " We forbid hat- 
 ties \i. e. Trials by Battle] to all persons thro%ighout our 
 dominions, .... and in place of battles we put proofs 
 hy witnesses And these Battles we abolish in 
 
 I See, ante, p. 247. 
 
THE WORLD A-GLADIATOEIAL AMPHITHEATRE. 309 
 
 OUR Dominions forever." i These at the time were 
 great words, and they continue great as an example. 
 Their acceptance by any two nations would begin the 
 work of abolition, which would be completed on their 
 adoption by a Congress of Nations, taking from war its 
 existing sanction. 
 
 THE WORLD A GLADIATORIAL AMPHITHEATRE. 
 
 The growing tendencies of mankind have been quick- 
 ened by the character of the present war, and the unex- 
 ampled publicity with which it has been waged. Never 
 before were all nations, even those separated by great 
 spaces, whether of land or ocean, the 'daily and excited 
 spectators of the combat. The vast amphitheatre within 
 which the battle is fouaht, with the whole heavens for 
 its roof, is coextensive with civilization itself. The 
 scene in that great Flavian Amphitheatre, the famous 
 Colosseum, is a faint type of what we are witnessing ; 
 but that is not without its lesson. Bloody games, where 
 human beings contended with lions and tigers, imported 
 for the purpose, or with each other, constituted an insti- 
 tution of ancient Eome, only mildly rebuked by Cicero,^ 
 and adopted even by Titus, in that short reign so much 
 praised as unspotted by the blood of the citizen.^ One 
 
 1 " Nous deffendons k tous les batailles par tout nostre demengne, .... 
 et en lieu des batailles nous meton priieves de tesraoins Et ces ba- 
 tailles nous ostons en nostre demaigne i toiijoiirs." — Recueil General des 
 Ancieimes Lois Franfaises, -par Jourdan, etc., (Paris, 1822-33,) Tom. I. 
 pp. 283-90. 
 
 2 "Crudele gladiatorum speotaculum et inhumanum nonnullis videri 
 solet : et haud scio an ita sit, ut nunc fit." — Tusculance (^luestiones, Lib. 
 IL Cap. XVII. 41. 
 
 8 Suetonius : Titks, Cap. IX. Merivale, History of the Romans under 
 the Empire, (London, 1862,) Ch. LX., Vol. VII. p. 56. 
 
310 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE -AND GERMANY. 
 
 hundred thousand spectators looked on, while gladiators 
 from Germany and Gaul joined in ferocious combat; and 
 then, as blood began to flow, and victim after victim 
 sank upon the sand, the people caught the fierce conta- 
 gion. A common ferocity ruled the scene. As Chris- 
 tianity prevailed, the incongruity of such an institution 
 was widely felt; but still it continued. At last an 
 Eastern monk, moved only by report, journeyed a long 
 way to protest against the impiety. With noble enthu- 
 siasm he leaped into the arena, where the battle raged, 
 in order to separate the combatants. He was unsuc- 
 cessful, and paid with life the penalty of his humanity.^ 
 But the martyr triumphed where the monk had failed. 
 Shortly afterwards, the Emperor Honorius, by solemn 
 decree, put an end to this horrid custom. " The first 
 Christian Emperor," says Gibbon, "may claim the honor 
 of the first edict which condemned the art and amuse- 
 ment of shedding human blood." ^ Our amphitheatre is 
 larger than that of Rome ; but it witnesses scenes not 
 less revolting ; nor need any monk journey a long way 
 to protest against the impiety. That protest can be ut- 
 tered by every one here at home. We are all specta- 
 tors ; and since by human craft the civilized world has 
 become one mighty Colosseum, with place for every- 
 body, may we not insist that the bloody games by which 
 it is yet polluted shall cease, and that, instead of mu- 
 tual-murdering gladiators filling the near-brought scene 
 with death, there shall be a harmonious people, of dif- 
 ferent nations, but one fellowship, vying together only 
 in works of industry and art, inspired and exalted by a 
 divine beneficence ? 
 
 1 St. Telemaclms, A. D. 404. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire, ed. Milman, (London, 1846,) Ch. XXX., Vol, III. p. 70. Smith, 
 Diet. Gr. and Rom. Biog. and Myth., art. Telemachus. 
 
 * Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, uM supra. 
 
THE WOELD A GLADIATORIAL AMPHITHEATRE. 311 
 
 In presenting this picture I exaggerate nothing. How 
 feeble is language to depict the stupendous barbarism ! 
 How small by its side the bloody games which degrad- 
 ed ancient Eome ! How pygmy the one, how colossal 
 the other ! Would you know how the combat is con- 
 ducted? Here is the briefest picture of the arena by 
 a looker-on : — 
 
 " Let your readers fancy masses of colored rags glued to- 
 gether with blood and brains, and pinned into strange shajjes 
 by fragments of bones, — let them conceive men's bodies 
 without heads, legs without bodies, heaps of human entrails 
 attached to red and blue cloth, and disembowelled corpses 
 in uniform, bodies lying about in all attitudes, with skulls 
 shattered, faces blown off, hips smashed, bones, flesh, and 
 gay clothing all pounded together as if brayed in a mortar 
 extending for miles, not very thick in any one place, but re- 
 curring perpetually for weary hours, — and then they cannot, 
 with the most vivid imagination, come up to the sickening 
 reality of that butchery." ^ 
 
 Siich a sight would have shocked the Heathen of 
 Eome. They could not have looked on while the brave 
 gladiator was thus changed into a bloody hash ; least of 
 all could they have seen the work of slaughter done by 
 machinery. Nor could any German gladiator have 
 written the letter I proceed to quote from a German 
 soldier : — 
 
 " I do not know how it is, but one wholly forgets the dan- 
 ger one is in, and thinks only of the effect of one's own bul- 
 lets, rejoicing like a child at the sight of the enemy falling 
 hke skittles, and having scarcely a compassionate glance to 
 spare for the comrade falling at one's side. One ceases to be 
 a human being, and turns into a brute, a complete brute." 
 
 1 Scene after the Battle of Setlan ; Herald of Peace for 1870, October 1st, 
 p. 1'J.l. 
 
312 THE DUEL BETWEEN FKANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 Plain confession ! And yet the duel continues. Nor 
 is there death for the armed man only. Fire mingles 
 with slaughter, as at Bazeilles. Wonien and children 
 are roasted alive, filling the air with suffocating odor, 
 while the maddened combatants rage against each other. 
 All this is but part of the prolonged and various spec- 
 tacle, where the scene shifts only for some other horror. 
 Meanwhile the sovereigns of the world sit in their boxes, 
 and the people everywhere occupy the benches. 
 
 PERIL FROM THE WAR SYSTEM. 
 
 The duel now pending teaches the peril from contin- 
 uance of the present system. If France and Germany 
 can be brought so suddenly into collision on a mere 
 pretext, what two nations are entirely safe ? Where is 
 the talisman for their protection ? None, surely, ex- 
 cept Disarmament, which, therefore, for the interest 
 of all nations, should be commenced. Prussia is now 
 an acknowledged military power, armed "in complete 
 steel," — but at what cost to her people, if not to man- 
 kind ! Military citizenship, according to Prussian rule, 
 is military serfdom, and on this is elevated a milita- 
 ry despotism of singular grasp and power, operating 
 throughout the whole nation, like martial law or a 
 state of siege. In Prussia the law tyrannically seizes 
 every youth of twenty, and, no matter what his calling 
 or profession, compels him to military service for seven 
 years. Three years he spends in active service in the 
 regular army, where his life is surrendered to the trade 
 of blood ; then for four years he passes to the reserve, 
 where he is subject to periodic military drills ; then for 
 five years longer to the Zandwehr, or militia, with lia- 
 
PERIL FROM THE WAR SYSTEM. 313 
 
 bility to service in the Landsturm, in case of war, until 
 sixty. Wherever he may be in foreign lands, his mili- 
 tary duty is paramount. 
 
 But if this system be good for Prussia, then must it 
 be ec[uaUy good for other nations. If this economical 
 government, with education for all, subordinates the 
 business of life to the military drill, other nations will 
 find too much reason for doing the same. Unless the 
 War System is abandoned, all must follow the success- 
 ful example, while the civilized world becomes a busy 
 camp, with every citizen a soldier, and with all sounds 
 swallowed up in the tocsin of war. Where, then, are 
 the people ? Where are popular rights ? Montesquieu 
 has not hesitated to declare that the peril to free gov- 
 ernments proceeds from armies, and that this peril is 
 not corrected even by making them depend directly on 
 the legislative power This is not enough. The ar- 
 mies must be reduced in number and force.^ Among 
 his papers, found since his death, is the prediction, 
 " France will be ruined by the military." ^ It is the 
 privilege of genius like that of Montesquieu to lift 
 the curtain of the future ; but even he did not see the 
 vastness of suffering in store for his country through 
 those armies against which he warned. For years the 
 engine of despotism at home, they became the sudden 
 instrument of war abroad. Without them Louis Napo- 
 leon could not have made himself Emperor, nor could 
 he have hurried France into the present duel. If need- 
 ed in other days, they are not needed now. The War 
 System, always barbarous, is an anachronism, full of 
 peril both to peace and liberal institutions. 
 
 1 De I'Esprit des Lois, Liv. XI. Ch. 6. 
 
 3 "La France se perdra par les gens de gnerre." — Pensies Diverses, — 
 Varietes: (Euvres M^l^es et Posthumes, ( Paris, 1807, Didot,) Tom. 11. p. 138. 
 
314 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GEEMANY. 
 
 PEACE. 
 
 An army is a despotism ; military service is a bond- 
 age ; nor can the passion for arms be reconciled with a 
 true civilization. The present failure to acknowledge 
 this incompatibility is only another illustration how the 
 clear light of truth is discolored and refracted by an 
 atmosphere where the cloud of war still lingers. Soon 
 must this cloud be dispersed. From war to peace is a 
 change indeed; but Nature herself testifies to change. 
 Sirius, brightest of all the fixed stars, was noted by 
 Ptolemy as of reddish hue/ and by Seneca as redder 
 than Mars ; ^ but since then it has changed to white. 
 To the morose remark, whether in the philosophy of 
 Hobbes or the apology of the soldier, that man is a 
 fighting animal and that war is natural, I reply, — Nat- 
 ural for savages rejoicing in the tattoo, natural for bar- 
 barians rejoicing in violence, but not natural for man in 
 a true civilization, which I insist is the natural state to 
 which he tends by a sure progression. The true state 
 of Nature is not war, but peace. Not only every war, 
 but every recognition of war as the mode of determining 
 international differences, is evidence that we are yet 
 barbarians, — and so also is every ambition for empire 
 founded on force, and not on the consent of the peo- 
 ple. A ghastly, bleeding, human head was discovered 
 by the early Eomans, as they dug the foundations of 
 that Capitol which finally swayed the world.^ That 
 ghastly, bleeding, human head is the fit symbol of mil- 
 itary power. 
 
 1 Almagest, ed. et tr. Halma, (Paris, 1816-20,) Tom. II. pp. 72, 73. 
 
 2 Naturales Qiiiestiones, Lib. I. Cap. 1. 
 
 ' Diouysius Halicarnassensis, Aiitiquitates Bomanse, Lib. IV. Capp, 
 59-61. 
 
PEACE. 315 
 
 Let the War System be abolished, and, in the glory 
 of this consummation, how vulgar all that conies from 
 battle ! By the side of this serene, beneficent civiliza- 
 tion, how petty in its pretensions is military power ! 
 how vain its triumphs ! At this moment the great 
 general who has organized victory for Germany is 
 veiled, and his name does not appear even in the mil- 
 itary bulletins. Thus is the glory of arms passing from 
 sight, and battle losing its ancient renown. Peace does 
 not arrest the mind like war. It does not glare like 
 battle. Its operations, like those of Nature, are gentle, 
 yet sure. It is not the tumbling, sounding cataract, but 
 the tranquil, fruitful river. Even the majestic Niagara, 
 with thunder like war, cannot compare with the peace- 
 ful plains of water which it divides. How easy to see 
 that the repose of nations, like the repose of Nature, is 
 the great parent of the most precious bounties vouch- 
 safed by Providence ! Add Peace to Liberty, — 
 
 " And with that virtue, every virtue lives." 
 
 As peace is assured, the traditional sensibilities of 
 nations will disappear. Their frontiers will no longer 
 frown with hostile cannon, nor will their people be 
 nursed to hate each other. By ties of constant fellow- 
 ship will they be interwoven together, no sudden trum- 
 pet waking to arms, no sharp summons disturbing the 
 uniform repose. By steam, by telegraph, by the press, 
 have they already conquered time, subdued space, — • 
 thus breaking down old waUs of partition by which 
 they have been separated. Ancient example loses its 
 influence. The prejudices of another generation are 
 removed, and the old geography gives place to a new. 
 The heavens are divided into constellations, with names 
 from beasts, or from some form of brute force, — as Leo, 
 
316 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 Taurus, Sagittarius, and Orion with his club; but this 
 is human device. By similar scheme is the earth di- 
 vided. But in the sight of God there is one Human 
 Family without division, where aU are equal in rights ; 
 and the attempt to set up distinctions, keeping men 
 asunder, or in barbarous groups, is a practical denial of 
 that great truth, religious and political, the Brotherhood 
 of Man. The Christian's Fatherland is not merely the 
 nation in which he was born, but the whole earth ap- 
 pointed by the Heavenly Father for his home. In this 
 Fatherland there can be no place for unfriendly boun- 
 daries set up by any, — least of all, place for the War 
 System, making nations as hostile camps. 
 
 At Lassa, in Thibet, there is a venerable stone in 
 memory of the treaty between the courts of Thibet and 
 China, as long ago as 821, bearing an inscription worthy 
 of a true civilization. From Eastern stoiy learn now 
 the beauty of peace. After the titles of the two august 
 sovereigns, the monument proceeds : " These two wise, 
 holy, spiritual, and accomplished princes, foreseeing the 
 changes hidden in the most distant futurity, touched 
 with sentiments of compassion towards their people, 
 and not knowing, in their beneficent protection, any 
 difference between their subjects and strangers, have, 
 after mature reflection and by mutual consent, resolved 
 to give peace to their people In perfect har- 
 mony with each other, they will henceforth be good 
 neighbors, and will do their utmost to draw still closer 
 the bonds of union and friendship. Henceforward the 
 two empires of Han (China) and Pho (Thibet) shall 
 have fixed boundaries In preserving these lim- 
 its, the respective parties shall not endeavor to injure 
 each other; they shall not attack each other in arms, 
 
THE EEPUBLiC. 317 
 
 or make any more incursions beyond the frontiers now 
 determined." Then declaring that the two " must recip- 
 rocally exalt their virtues and banish forever all mis- 
 trust between them, that travellers may be without un- 
 easiness, that the inhabitants of the villages and fields 
 may live at peace, and that nothing may happen to 
 cause a misunderstanding," the inscription announces, 
 in terms doubtless Oriental : " This benefit will be ex- 
 tended to future generations, and the voice of love (tow- 
 ards its authors) will be heard wherever the splendor of 
 the sun and the moon is seen. The Pho will be tran- 
 quil in their kingdom, and the Han will be joyful in 
 their empire."^ Such is the benediction which from 
 early times has spoken from one of the monuments 
 erected by the god Terminus. Call it Oriental ; would 
 it were universal ! While recognizing a frontier, there 
 is equal recognition of peace as the rule of international 
 Ufe. 
 
 THE EEPUBLIC. 
 
 In the abolition of the War System the will of the 
 people must become all-powerful, exalting the Republic 
 to its just place as the natural expression of citizenship. 
 Napoleon has been credited with the utterance at St. 
 Helena of the prophecy, that "in fifty years Europe 
 would be Republican or Cossack." ^ Evidently Europe 
 
 1 Travels of the Russian Mission througli Mongolia to China, and Resi- 
 dence in Peking, in 1820-21, by George Timkowski, Vol. I. pp. 460-64. 
 
 2 See the New York Times of August 11, 1870, where the reputed 
 prophecy is cited in these terms, in a letter of the 27th July from the Lon- 
 don correspondent of that journal, with remarks indicating an expectation 
 of its fulfilment in the results of the present war. This famous saying has 
 been variously represented; but the following are its original terms, as re- 
 corded at the time by Las Cases, to whom it was addressed in conversation. 
 
318 THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
 
 will not be Cossack, unless the Cossack is already 
 changed to EepulDlican, — as well may be, when it is 
 known, that, since the great act of Enfranchisement, in 
 February, 1861, by which twenty-three millions of serfs 
 were raised to citizenship, with the right to vote, fifteen 
 thousand three hundred and fifty public schools have 
 been opened in Eussia. A better than N'apoleon, who 
 saw mankind with truer insight, Lafayette, has recorded 
 a clearer prophecy. At the foundation of the monu- 
 ment on Bunker Hill, on the semi-centennial anniver- 
 sary of the battle, 17th June, 1825, our much-honored 
 national suest "ave this toast: "Bunker Hill, and the 
 holy resistance to oppression, which has already en- 
 franchised the American hemisphere. The next half- 
 century Jubilee's toast shall be, — To Enfranchised 
 Europe."'^ The close of that half-century, already so 
 prolific, is at hand. Shall it behold the great Jubilee 
 with all its vastness of promise accomplished ? En- 
 franchised Europe, foretold by Lafayette, means not 
 only the Republic for all, but Peace for all ; it means 
 the United States of Europe, with the War System 
 abolished. Against that little faith through which so 
 much fails in life, I declare my unalterable conviction, 
 that " government of the people, by the people, and for 
 the people " — thus simply described by Abraham Lin- 
 
 and as authenticated bj' the Commission appointed by Louis Napoleon for 
 the collection and publication of the matters now composing the magnifi- 
 cent work entitled " Correspondance de Napoleon 1°'" ; — 
 
 ^' Bans I'Hat actuel des choses, avant dix aTis, toute i'Europe peiU itre 
 cosaque, ou toute en republique." — Las Cases, Memorial de Sainte-He- 
 lene, (Reimpression de 1823 et 1824,) Tom. IIL p. Ill, — Journal, 18 Avril 
 1816. Correspondance de Napoleon I'", (Paris, 1858-69,) Tom. XXXIL 
 p. 326. 
 
 1 Columbian Centinel, June 18, 1825. 
 
THE REPUBLIC. 319 
 
 coln^ — is a necessity of civilization, not only because 
 of that republican equality without distinction of birth 
 which it establishes, but for its assurance of permanent 
 peace. All privilege is usurpation, and, like Slavery, a 
 state of war, relieved only by truce, to be broken by 
 the people in their might. To the people alone can 
 mankind look for the repose of nations ; but the Repub- 
 lic is the embodied people. All hail to the Eepublic, 
 equal guardian of all, and angel of peace ! 
 
 Our own part is simple. It is, first, to keep out of 
 war, — and, next, to stand firm in those ideas which are 
 the life of the Republic. Peace is our supreme voca- 
 tion. To this we are called. By this we succeed. Our 
 example is more than an army. But not on this ac- 
 count can we be indifferent, when Human Eights are 
 assailed or republican institutions are in question. Ga- 
 ribaldi asks for a " word," ^ that easiest expression of 
 power. Strange will it be, when that is not given. To 
 the Eepublic, and to all struggling for Human Eights, I 
 give word, with heart on the lips. Word and heart I 
 give. Nor would I have my country forget at any time, 
 in the discharge of its transcendent duties, that, since 
 the rule of conduct and of honor is the same for nations 
 as for individuals, the greatest nation is that which does 
 most for Humanity. 
 
 1 Address at the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, 
 November 19, 1863 : McPherson's Political History of the United States 
 during the Great Rebellion, p. 606. 
 
 2 "The cause of Liberty in Italy needs the word of the United States 
 Government, which wonld be more powerful in its behalf than that of any 
 other." — Message to Mr. Sumner from Caprera, May 24, 1869. 
 
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